Imaginary’s Jason Blum Reveals Awkward Encounter With IF’s John Krasinski

Imaginary and IF are two 2024 movies that people keep confusing – and it’s pretty clear why. Blumhouse and Cry Wolf director Jeff Wadlow’s Imaginary will be a horror story about a child who finds that a stuffed bear houses a spirit that is much more malevolent than your ordinary imaginary friend; Paramount and  John Krasinksi’s IF is a family comedy film about a little girl who starts to see everyone else’s imaginary friends. Easy to keep straight, right? Not. 

It also doesn’t help that John Krasinski’s big foray into movie directing has been the A Quiet Place films – one of the biggest franchises in horror today that also has a new installment (A Quiet Place: Day One) releasing this year. In fact, if you go to the Wiki for IF, there’s a note at the very top asking if you are truly looking for that film, or Imaginary. It’s become a point of confusion for a lot of people. 

With Imaginary now releasing in theaters (first), Blumhouse Productions head Jason Blum is talking about the marketing hurdles that have come with Krasinski releasing IF in the same year. That includes an anecdote that Blum shared, about an awkward encounter he had with John Krasinski, following a somewhat twisted move the studio pulled for the Super Bowl.

 The Imaginary Super Bowl spot started off by imitating the uplifting and whimsical tone of the trailer for IF, only to pull out the run midway through and shift into the horror movie trailer it really is. Needless to say, with both films constantly being mixed up by potential moviegoers, John Krasinki was not exactly happy to have his family film associated in any way with horror: 

“We did a kind of funny thing during the Super Bowl because there was an ad for that movie during the Super Bowl and then we did this funny thing online around it,” Blum explained. “But I saw John Krasinski about two or three weeks ago and he was a little standoffish, so I hope he is not upset with us. But I really think there’s plenty of room for imaginary movies in the world… The tones are so different.”

Jeff Wadlow added that the vibe between Imaginary’s crew and IF is definitely not all love, revealing that he too had some awkward encounters with John Krasinski: 

“They’re editing the movie on the same floor as us in New York City. I walked by Krasinski a couple times and I felt like I’m dating someone’s girlfriend. I had my head down like this… I mean I’ve worked with Ryan a few times. I haven’t reached out to him yet. I just kind of wanna like, just leave it alone.”

Imaginary will be in theaters on Friday. 

Source: CinemaBlend