--- description: Jason Blum is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Harvey Weinstein wrote about the film producer. title: Jason Blum by Harvey Weinstein: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc64e0afa9626c7ce/6988c37b8e0601475d469ff7/time-100-2017-jason-blum-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Jason Blum by Harvey Weinstein  Jason Blum is photographed at CinemaCon 2015 on April 12, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images Portrait) Jason Blum is photographed at CinemaCon 2015 on April 12, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images Portrait)Photograph by Denise Truscello—Getty Images For me, Jason Blum’s defining moment came in 1998, when I sent him to Munich to buy the film rights to _The Reader_. Others on my team had already passed on the book, so I knew it was a long shot. But I told Jason that if he didn’t succeed, I would do everything in my power to keep him—he was working for me at the time—from coming back to America. “You’re not serious,” Jason said. And to this day I don’t know whether or not he thought I was. But he leveraged my line anyway. After the book’s author refused to see him, Jason started to beg. “My boss is Harvey Weinstein,” he said. “If you don’t meet with me, he won’t let me come back.” It worked. Jason won the rights, and that film turned the Weinstein Co. into an Academy Awards powerhouse. Now Jason applies that same drive to his own business. Starting with _Paranormal Activity_, Blumhouse Productions has a hit streak to rival Joe DiMaggio’s: _The Purge, Split, Whiplash_ and most notably _Get Out_, all made for a fraction of the cost of other blockbusters. But the best thing he’s done is marry his smart and lovely wife Lauren. As to whether I was kidding about allowing him back into the country if he didn’t get the rights to _The Reader_, I can now tell Jason that I wasn’t. _Weinstein is an Oscar-winning producer_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742752/jason-blum/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742752/jason-blum/"},"headline":"Jason Blum","datePublished":"2017-04-19T16:51:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:25.660Z","description":"Jason Blum is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Harvey Weinstein wrote about the film producer.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742752/jason-blum/","keywords":["TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc64e0afa9626c7ce/6988c37b8e0601475d469ff7/time-100-2017-jason-blum-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc64e0afa9626c7ce/6988c37b8e0601475d469ff7/time-100-2017-jason-blum-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742752/jason-blum/","name":"Jason Blum"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742752/jason-blum/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4742752/jason-blum/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```