Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster Close $10M+ TIFF Deal for Slasher ‘River’

Toronto’s sleepy acquisition corridor finally produced a headline sale on September 14, 2026: Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are closing a deal for U.S. and select-territory rights to Joshua Giuliano’s Midnight Madness slasher River for more than $10 million, Deadline, Variety, and Screen Daily reported.

The transaction is unusual because Independent Film Company and Shudder already held U.S. rights when the film premiered—and still chose to sell after a rabid festival response. Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro reconstructed the bidding: Focus, Paramount, A24, and Netflix had passed by Saturday night; Sony sat near $8 million Monday morning before Blumhouse and Universal stepped in above $10 million. Screen Daily likewise called it the festival’s first significant transaction after a quiet opening weekend for buyers and noted Upgrade handling international sales. The same overnight window briefly elevated Michelle Yeoh’s The Surgeon as another coveted title, Screen Daily added, underscoring how quickly TIFF’s market temperature can change once one deal breaks.

River follows three estranged siblings—Jane Levy (Evil Dead), Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), and Max Mattern—who reunite to scatter their father’s ashes on a remote river only for their boat to fail and a faceless stalker to turn the trip into a nightmare; Dane DiLiegro (Prey) also stars, Variety summarized from the official synopsis. Giuliano writes and directs. Producers are Nick Antosca, Alex Hedlund, and Steven Schneider, with Roy Lee, Ben Ross, Matt Brodlie, Jonathan Kier, Jeffrey Tinnell, Robert Tinnell, and Jason Blum among the executive producers. Giuliano, an American Film Institute directing-program alumnus with genre-festival short-film awards from Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, and FrightFest, is repped by CAA, Kaplan Perrone Entertainment, and Marios Rush, Variety noted.

Relationships explain the passion. Sam Zimmerman, who now leads indies at Blumhouse Atomic Monster, worked with Giuliano on River during Zimmerman’s Shudder tenure, Deadline and Screen Daily both emphasized. Last week the same Blumhouse Atomic Monster shop—with Divide/Conquer and Spooky Pictures—boarded Giuliano’s next film, Occupant, with Focus Features distributing. The comps write themselves for Studio desks: Focus paid about $15 million for last year’s Midnight Madness sensation Obsession, which Screen Daily reminded readers went on to gross more than $513 million worldwide this summer with Blumhouse among the producers—a reminder that festival slashers can still print money when the audience converts.

Deadline cited an early Rotten Tomatoes sample of 12 reviews at 83% fresh—useful as a festival-temperature snapshot, not a final critical consensus. IndieWire’s earlier breaking account aligned with Variety and Deadline on the Universal/Blumhouse direction of travel, reinforcing that the sale was a multi-outlet confirmation rather than a single-trade exclusive rumor. Sony’s exit after the $8 million morning bid, as Deadline reconstructed it, left the genre specialist shop with Universal’s theatrical reach as the clearest path to a wide scare campaign.

No theatrical date, MPAA rating, or full release-territory map was locked in the September 14 reports. What studios can put on a whiteboard is clearer: a Midnight Madness title with recognizable genre leads, a $10-million-plus IFC/Shudder flip, Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s genre machinery under Jason Blum and James Wan’s banner, and Universal’s distribution muscle chasing the post-Obsession horror premium. In a TIFF market many buyers called slow, River is the proof that the right scream can still restart the bidding—and that streamer-era rights holders will flip a title when the acquisition money is simply too good to refuse.

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