Jason Blum has scared up a nice reputation as one of Hollywood’s most profitable producers. His low-budget movies, including this year’s dystopian thriller “The Purge,” have killed it at the box office.

But he is now seeking success on a new stage, by producing a haunted house in downtown Los Angeles, “The Purge: Fear the Night,” based on the movie.

The spinoff is an example of how Los Angeles dresses up the haunted house business thanks to Hollywood’s Halloween infatuation. One current example is Universal Studios’ “Walking Dead” attraction, based on the hit AMC zombie series.

Blum’s “Fear the Night” features screaming actors guiding visitors through gory exhibits at the six-story Variety Arts Theater building. He hired many of the same people who have worked on his films, which are often shot in Los Angeles, from makeup artists and casting directors to electricians.

“It’s kind of similar to doing a movie,” he said. “You change the space a lot. There are props, makeup, hair, wardrobe and catering. It’s a similar kind of thing.”

A key difference: “It’s a hell of a lot easier to make money making a movie than doing something like this,” he said.

One problem for an upstart haunt is the long creative process compared with a limited selling season. Blum and his crew worked for more than four months to create the attraction, but they have only one month or so to recoup that money with ticket sales.

There’s also no studio to promote it. That means Blum and a group of friends who invested in the project are on the hook to get people to turn out.

Blum said the group has invested a sum somewhere between $100,000 and the $3 million budget of “The Purge” movie. Tickets go for either $39 or $45, depending on the show time. Blum’s co-producer, Josh Simon, said they hope to get close to last year’s attendance of 15,000 people, which would put the attraction at about breakeven. That implies costs are in the $500,000-$700,000 range. The attraction has also brought in paid sponsors including horror-themed cable channel Fearnet in deals that will produce revenue.

Blum’s name and the tie-in to the recent movie also help to get attention; the attraction has been hyped on social media.

But unlike the movies, there’s only one take at a live attraction. That problem came into focus when the attraction opened earlier this month. Visitors were confused by the self-guided, free-roaming format, and exhausted by its two-and-a-half-hour running time. Some of them left bad reviews on the Yelp page for “Fear the Night.”

Blum and his partners called an emergency meeting after opening night and decided to rejigger the entire experience to give visitors clear directions from actors as they navigate the maze.

Some of the early visitors got refunds and were invited back for a free visit; some have since updated their Yelp comments.

By making improvements on the go, Blum maintains considerable goodwill among horror fans, said David Markland, editor of the blog CreepyLA, which chronicles the local haunted house industry.

“They’ve made the horrible reviews over the first weekend into a great talking point,” he said. “They were able to turn it into something great.”

Now Blum is hoping the kinks are worked out as the attraction goes into its biggest week of business leading up to Halloween and he mulls expansion plans.

Back on track

Blum makes his movies through his L.A. production company, Blumhouse Productions. He got Hollywood’s attention with “Paranormal Activity,” which he produced in 2007 for about $15,000, using faux found-footage shots to tell the story of a couple haunted by demons. When distributor Paramount Pictures released the film in 2009, it became a sensation and made $194 million at the worldwide box office. It has spurred four sequels so far.

Last year, he produced his first live haunt, “Blumhouse of Horrors,” at the Variety Arts Theater, which was decorated as a 1920s vaudeville venue with horror twists.

He followed that up in June with “The Purge” film, which was made for about $3 million. It was released by Universal Pictures and grossed $87 million worldwide. It’s a story of a family trying to survive a12-hour period when laws are suspended.

Blum decided to use “The Purge” theme for this year’s event after talking with the movie’s writer and director, James DeMonaco, about ways to expand the story. The haunt gives visitors the chance to tour a re-created government facility under siege by violent dissidents.

Josh Randall, a director of the “Fear the Night” attraction, said the experience is different from other haunts because it feels cinematic but not completely unreasonable.

“The main difference is that this is a real-life scenario,” Randall said. “This isn’t about monsters. Nobody dripping in blood with vampire fangs is going to jump out and say, ‘We want to eat your brains.’ We approached it sort of like an action movie.”

Another difference is that visitors are involved in the story and must complete certain tasks to escape.

By comparison, visitors to Universal Studios’ “Walking Dead: No Safe Haven” attraction make their way through a maze and observe zombies as they scream, for the most part, from behind bars and cages. Still, Universal is promoting a cinema-related aspect of the show added this year: a haunt on the back lot of the studio’s grounds with recognizable sets. Universal’s attraction charges from about $59 to $74 for general admission.

Blum had first charged $65, but lowered the ticket prices for “Fear the Night” after shortening the show – and to better compete with Universal.

The Blum team is taking feedback from “The Purge”-based show to see what works and what doesn’t, with future plans in mind, said co-producer Simon.

Blum said this year’s attraction is more for fun than money. But he’s pondering ways to turn the event into a bigger business, possibly by setting up haunted houses in multiple cities in the Halloween season or by making a year-round attraction.

There’s already a cautionary tale for year-round haunts: the $10 million year-round Goretorium in Las Vegas, created by director Eli Roth, known for his “Hostel” films, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed this month after just one year in operation.

Blum said the bankruptcy shows the importance of keeping costs in check, which has never been much of an issue for his movies.

He said expanding the right way could create a viable business.

“The way to make money doing this is to do a bunch of them – to do 10 or 20,” he said. “People like to be scared year-round.”