Jon M. Chu

Jon M. Chu (birthname: Jonathan Murray Chu) is a director/producer who has become one of Hollywood’s most in-demand filmmakers for dance-based musicals and sequels, but became an industry phenomenon as director of Warner Bros.’ wildly embraced comedybased on Kevin Kwan’s best-seller, Crazy Rich Asians (2018), the first major studio release to have a complete cast (led by Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina and Ken Jeong)  and creative team of Asian Americans, and which grossed $239 million.

Chu made his directorial debut on Disney’s hit sequel, Step Up 2: The Streets (2008), with Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Will Kemp, and Cassie Ventura, and its excellent $151 million return on a $17.5 million budget set up Chu as a standard-bearer of the Step Up series, first as director of the sequel, Step Up 3D (2010), which was the biggest grosser in the series at $159.2 million (on $30 million costs), and then as executive producer on the Scott Speer-directed Step Up: Revolution (2012)—which grossed $140 million on $33 million costs–and Step Up: All In (2014), earning over $86 million on $35 million costs, and then Chu was producer of the China-based sequel, Step Up Year of the Dance (2019) aka Step Up China, directed by Ron Yuan.

Chu not only kept his involvement in the Step Up project but became the go-to concert movie director for pop star Justin Bieber, with a pair of commercially successful concert movies for MTV Films, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011), grossing nearly $100 million, and Justin Bieber’s Believe (2013), and earned over $32 million worldwide. Chu landed his first directorial job on a studio-backed (Paramount Pictures) narrative drama with Hasbro’s critically lambasted sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), co-starring D.J. Cotrona, Dwayne Johnson, Lee Byung-hun, Bruce Willis, Adrianne Palicki and Jonathan Pryce, and which grossed $375.7 million globally.

Jon M. Chu was director/producer of Universal Pictures’ musical drama, Jem and the Holograms (2015), backed in part by producer Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Pictures and co-starring Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott, Hayley Kiyoko, Ryan Guzman, Molly Ringwald and Juliette Lewis, but which was Chu’s first box office failure ($2.3 million gross against $5 million costs). Chu returned to commercial hit status as director of Lionsgate Films’ highly successful sequel, Now You See Me 2 (2016), starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, and Michael Caine, and delivering a global take of $334 million; during that same year, Chu was producer only on Dance Camp (2016), directed by Bert & Bertie and released by YouTube Red.

Chu then hit it out of the park as director of Crazy Rich Asians (2018). It stayed in the Warner Bros. stable as director of the big-screen version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s and Quiara Alegria Hudes’ hit stage musical, In the Heights (2021), with Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Miranda, Jimmy Smits, and Melissa Barrera, and though Chu earned terrific reviews for his work, the movie proved a box office disappointment grossing only $45 million on a $55 million budget.

Chu solidified his position as one of Hollywood’s major directors of musicals as helmer on Universal Pictures’ highly anticipated two-film Wizard of Oz adaptation, Wicked (2024) and Wicked Part Two (2025), co-starring Cynthia Erivo (as Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda the Good Witch of the North), with Jeff Goldblum (as the Wizard), Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey and Bowen Yang, and budgeted at a combined $300 million.