LOS ANGELES — At first glance, there is nothing particularly special about Jason Blum. He makes low-cost horror films that sell a lot of tickets. Producers have been getting rich from that formula for decades: rinse (the fake blood) and repeat.

But start adding the numbers, and Blum, 44, becomes interesting in a hurry. Over the last five years, for production costs totaling a mere $27 million, his company, Blumhouse Productions, has churned out eight hit horror films — including “Paranormal Activity,” “Sinister” and “The Purge” — that have taken in $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office. “Insidious: Chapter 2,” for instance, cost $5 million to make and last month sold $116.5 million in tickets.

To achieve low budgets while attracting high-caliber actors and directors, Blum uses an unusual business model. Established directors and stars work for union scale. In success, profits are shared. “So basically people work for free,” he said. “And we don’t do frills. Everyone’s trailer on the set is the same: nonexistent.”

Not all his movies have been successful. Disappointments have included Catherine Hardwicke’s “Plush,” which made a total of $3,080 and cost about $2 million.

But because of the growth in global video-on-demand and streaming services, even the movies that do not succeed at the box office have a good chance of earning back their low costs. Some of the duds even end up turning a profit for distributors.

Blumhouse movies, some of which rely on bouncy camera work and surveillance-style video, seem tailor-made for an audience raised on flip-phone cameras, reality TV and YouTube. And horror movies, which tend to do especially well among Hispanics and blacks, have been a bright spot lately for an otherwise troubled North American box office.

“It is always amazing when a producer can capture a niche so completely,” said Peter Schlessel, the departing chief executive of FilmDistrict, which has distributed Blum’s “Insidious” series.

Out to change Hollywood

Blum’s success has led to no small amount of envy among rival producers, while prompting some studio executives to wince at the degree to which he is exposing their inefficiencies. The big studios have been in hot pursuit of the opposite strategy recently — spending more to make more — leading to a cycle of bloat and steep losses on films like “R.I.P.D.”

Blum, a son of art dealer Irving Blum, is hyper, witty, serially punctual and charming. He can be a bit of a gossip. One of his best friends is Ethan Hawke, who has starred in two of his films. People often describe Blum as “quirky,” which is not entirely accurate, although he did spend $25,000 to turn an old Chevy Astro van into a mobile office. An assistant chauffeurs him between studio meetings while he answers email, talks on his cellphone and screens film on a 36-inch flat-screen TV.

“I’m visiting studios; I’m visiting agencies — television. I’m out pitching a lot of TV at the moment, a ton, actually,” he said in his mile-a-minute way on a recent trip down Venice Boulevard, his feet propped up on a cushion.

Blum is trying to expand his low-cost, share-in-the-rewards business model to the small screen. He has two series on the air and seven scripted and unscripted shows in the works at various networks.

People close to him say his motivation seems to go beyond money. Blum’s father helped change the art world by giving Andy Warhol one of his first shows; he wants to prove that he can change Hollywood, or at least a corner of it.

Still, the sustainability of the Blumhouse empire remains a question. Blum came along just as horror fans were tiring of “Saw”-style torture films. Eventually, audiences may also tire of his brand. Moreover, every successful producer has at one time or another seen a hot hand turn cold — look no further than Jerry Bruckheimer, fresh off the disastrous “Lone Ranger.”

“Historically speaking, the audience eventually moves on,” said Harold Vogel, an analyst and author of the textbook “Entertainment Industry Economics.” “I don’t think there is any exception.”

And nobody becomes successful in Hollywood without rubbing some people the wrong way. Blum’s relationship with Paramount Pictures, which controls the horror franchise that propelled him, “Paranormal Activity,” has been frosty at times, with executives chafing over what they see as attention-grabbing. (“Paramount has been a great partner,” Blum responded.)

“It’s the price of success,” said Schlessel, who is taking over the top job at Focus Features, the specialty division of Universal Pictures. “This is a competitive business and, to some degree, a zero-sum game.” Schlessel’s advice for surviving it: “He has to stay humble and he has to stay hungry.”

Plenty of projects

Blum, who is sometimes compared to Roger Corman, the low-budget B-movie kingpin, understands the challenges. But he does not have time to ruminate about them. Blumhouse is on fire.

The company has six films awaiting wide release, including “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones,” which arrives Jan. 3; “Stretch,” which expands Blumhouse into the comedy genre, stars Chris Pine and Jessica Alba and is scheduled for March 21. One movie is in production, five more are in advanced preproduction, and about 20 other projects are in various stages of development. The company, which employs 15 people, can handle this kind of volume “because we offer support and suggestion rather than micromanagement,” said Couper Samuelson, executive vice president for production.

Although Blumhouse sells movies to various distributors, it has a first-look deal at Universal. The studio’s chairwoman, Donna Langley, sought out Blum in 2011 after his “Paranormal Activity” success. “I wanted us to play in the very-low-budget horror space, but the main studio has other things to focus on,” she said. In June, Universal released “The Purge,” a Blumhouse film that cost $3 million to make and took in $87 million.

In addition to television, Blum has a budding live-entertainment division. A haunted house called “The Purge: Fear the Night” opened in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 27. (The botched opening was nothing short of a disaster, but Blum swiftly made changes, and the Halloween attraction has since found its footing.)

All this hustle and bustle takes place in a 10-month-old headquarters complex in a blue-collar neighborhood near downtown. The offices have a dot-com feel to them. Postproduction rooms are filled with directors and young producers who look as if they have been up all night; there is a rooftop party space where Blum is mounting a Mazda Miata used in one of his films.

“It will draw attention,” he said excitedly of the car.

Part of Blum’s strategy involves casting name actors who are perhaps undervalued in Hollywood: Hawke, Jennifer Lopez, Rose Byrne. Agents say actors are wooed by short four-week shoots (they can tuck the films in between bigger projects) and the chance to make more money than they typically would. Hawke, for instance, will receive about $2 million for his work in “The Purge,” or double what he could have commanded upfront. Byrne stands to do even better for her work in “Insidious: Chapter 2.”

Directors say they are drawn by the opportunity to receive final cut, something studios are loathe to allow.

Blum, who is married to a former Wall Street Journal reporter, did not start out in the horror genre. He received degrees in economics and film from Vassar College and went on to work at Miramax, where he became co-president of acquisitions in 1998. But he eventually burned out on little art house movies.

“I remember thinking, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” he said. “I have to make movies that people see.”