James DeMonaco
Birthdate: Mar 5, 1969
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
James DeMonaco is the creator of the phenomenally successful urban horror series, The Purge, but had his first big-screen credit as the co-screenwriter (with Gary Nadeau) of the comedy-drama, Jack (1996), directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Robin Willliams, Diane Lane, Jennifer Lopez, Fran Drescher and Bill Cosby, grossing $78 million against $45 million costs for Disney/Hollywood Pictures/American Zoetrope.
DeMonaco shifted into the action genre for his next produced script, The Negotiator (1998), co-written with DeMonaco’s childhood friend Kevin Fox, co-starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, with David Morse, Ron Rivkin, John Spencer, and J.T. Walsh under F. Gary Gray’s direction delivered a fair $88 million return on $43.5 million in expenses for Warner Bros./Regency Enterprises.
DeMonaco had his first solo screenwriting credit for the French-U.S. co-produced remake of John Carpenter’s 1976 urban thriller, Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), starring Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Maria Bello, Ja Rule, Drea de Matteo, Brian Dennehy and Gabriel Byrne under Jean-Francois Richet’s direction, but losing money ($35 million gross on a $30 million budget) for producers Why Not Productions and Liaison Films and multiple distributors including Rogue Pictures in the U.S. DeMonaco was co-writer (with Todd Harthan and James Roday) of his first horror movie, Skinwalkers (2006), directed by James Isaac and co-starring Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra and Kim Coates, and released in limited pattern by After Dark Films and Freestyle Releasing.
James DeMonaco made his directorial debut with the French-U.S. crime movie set in his native New York borough, Staten Island (2009), starring Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Seymour Cassel, and Julianne Nicholson, with Luc Besson as lead producer and EuropaCorp, Besson's production company, as distributor. DeMonaco’s filmmaking breakthrough occurred as the director/writer of Blumhouse/Universal Pictures’ The Purge (2013), reuniting DeMonaco with lead actor Hawke, alongside Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane, and Max Burkholder, which led to an astonishing box office return of over $91 million on a $3 million budget.
DeMonaco was director/writer of the Blumhouse/Universal Purge sequels The Purge: Anarchy (2014) (with Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, and Michael K. Williams) and The Purge: Election Year (2016) (with Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchel,l and Mykelti Williamson), earning a fabulous combined $230 million gross.
DeMonaco switched to writer/producer of the final two Purge sequels, The First Purge (2018), directed by Gerard McMurray and co-starring Y’lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade and Steve Harris; and The Forever Purge (2021), directed by Everardo Valerio Gout and co-starring Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Cassidy Freeman, Josh Lucas and Will Patton, and grossing a cumulative $214 million against $31 million costs; on the whole, DeMonaco’s Purge series grossed an average across the five movies of ten times expenses.
James DeMonaco as director/writer reunited with Frank Grillo in the lead, Jason Blum as lead producer and Universal Pictures as distributor of the drama, This is the Night (2021), co-starring Naomi Watts, Lucius Hoyos, Jonah Hauer-King and Bobby Cannavale, and which had previously been titled by DeMonaco as Once Upon a Time in Staten Island. DeMonaco was the director/co-writer (with Adam Cantor) of the horror-thriller The Home (2025), starring Pete Davidson, Bruce Altman, John Glover, and Ethan Phillips. Originally produced by Miramax, the film was later acquired by Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions for a wide release.
Personal life
James DeMonaco was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Staten Island borough of New York City by his parents. DeMonaco is married.
James DeMonaco Movies
director
Previous (4)
- 2025 |
- 2016 |
The Purge: Election Year
Former Police Sergeant Barnes becomes head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on Purge night due to her vow to eliminate the Purge.
- 2014 |
The Purge: Anarchy
Three groups of people intertwine and are left stranded in the streets on Purge Night, trying to survive the chaos and violence that occurs.
- 2013 |
actor
Previous (7)
producer
Previous (1)
- 2021 |
The Forever Purge
All the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end.
writer
Previous (1)
- 2018 |
The First Purge
America's third political party, the New Founding Fathers of America, comes to power and conducts an experiment: no laws for 12 hours on Staten Island. No one has to stay on the island, but $5,000 is given to anyone who does.
Facts About James DeMonaco
Near-Death Experience: James DeMonaco and his wife were nearly killed in Brooklyn by a drunk driver, at which time his wife remarked, “I wish we could all have one free murder a year,” thus triggering the idea that led DeMonaco to write the screenplay for The Purge.
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