When it was announced in 2017 that Jamie Lee Curtis was to return to Halloween for the first time in 15 years, fans rejoiced.
The resulting movie was 2018’s Halloween, a movie that reintroduced Curtis’ Laurie Strode and popularised the concept of the legacy sequel.
Making $252 million worldwide, Halloween became the highest grossing slasher film in history. The success led to two more sequels being greenlit, and a slew of work offers for Curtis.
Now, almost 4 years after 2022’s Halloween Ends, Curtis has commented on her willingness to return to the franchise, and alluded to the amount of money she made. Needless to say, her comments about the films and Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum have riled up considerable backlash amongst Halloween fans.
“If they had come to me and said it’s going to be a trilogy, I don’t think I would have said yes.”
On Blum and his financial practices, Curtis continued:
“Jason Blum is notoriously cheap. How do you make low-budget movies? You don’t pay people. That’s the model.”
Although Curtis later went on to praise Blum for giving her a first-look deal with his company, she further insisted she deserved it, as she owed him two Halloween movies and had been gotten “on the cheap.”
Her comments have sparked considerable backlash among Halloween fans, who were quick to point out that Curtis was paid handsomely for 2018’s Halloween, despite her insinuation otherwise.
It is well known that Curtis was paid a lucrative 10% “back-end” deal for each of her Halloween trilogy instalments. This entitled the actress to 10% of each movie’s final gross. This means Curtis’ final payday after three films an estimated $48 million.
Fans have labelled Curtis’ comments as tone-deaf and entitled, and have lambasted the Halloween star for seemingly viewing the franchise as nothing more than a cash-cow.
Does this mean Curtis has now fallen from grace as the horror genre’s favourite Scream Queen? We won’t hold our breath for any further Laurie Strode returns in the future.
