When you think of great films you might think of their directors
like Spielberg, Hitchcock, Peele or actors like Meryl Streep,
Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman. But recently, there's
a new name in the mix and it's not a person
but a studio. A24. A24 movies have been nominated for over 50 Oscars and
have won 16. They've taken over Halloween
and maybe your closet. And the reason why
you know their name is part of their strategy. A strategy that's helped take A24
from a tiny distribution company... to making some of the biggest
and weirdest movies and TV shows of the past ten years. I've maybe seen
more A24 films than the people who work
at A24. My name is Nate Jones. I'm a senior writer for Vulture
in New York Magazine. Last August, 8/24, I ranked all of them
from worst to best. The company was founded on two sort of
basic creative principles. The first was that they were going
to give directors an almost unprecedented
creative freedom and then to pay for that, because that is,
you know, creatively risky. They basically decided they weren't
going to be spending money on traditional forms of marketing. They were going to try and use viral marketing and
word of mouth. These cheaper ways of bringing attention
to their movies. So the first half of their existence,
they only bought. They didn't make any of the films. In other words, A24 was founded
as a distribution company and as your resident film nerd I have to give you a quick lesson on the moviemaking pipeline
for this all to make sense. So bear with me for a second. First, there's production
where the movie gets made. Then there's distribution where a company buys the rights
to finished film and takes on the work of marketing it and making deals to connect it to companies that can show it
to audiences. That's the third part
known as exhibition where companies like movie theaters
and streaming services show movies for the general public. The studios you’re likely familiar with generally take on both
production and distribution. So something like Indiana Jones
and the Dial of Destiny is produced by Disney. And then Disney also makes
the trailers, posters and deals with with exhibitors
like AMC and Regal to get that movie shown in theaters. But smaller, independently produced films often go to film festivals like
Sundance or Tribeca in hopes of getting the attention
of a distributor who will buy the rights to the film and will help them make
those connections. In the beginning,
A24's sole focus was to find great indie movies and
buy the distribution rights for them. It's just easier that way.
You don't need as much money. You know, it takes a lot of cash
to produce a film. Doesn't take as much to just buy a film
that's already made. Let’s use Spring Breakers,
their first hit as a case study to show how all their strategies come together. Spring Breakers was the first
A24 film I saw. It was the first A24 film
most people saw. I think it was a very good introduction
to the A24 style. The film has an extremely strong artistic vision from director
Harmony Korine... who A24 courted by making bespoke
gun-shaped bongs. The movie had striking
visual choices like this rain that almost
looks like blood... and a neon color palette
that has become a staple of A24 films. It had a clear hook. You have these sort of Disney starlets
like Selena Gomez and they're, you know, getting up to
no good and doing drugs. And if you were a young person who'd grown up on the Disney Channel suddenly all these people you'd seen
in this very squeaky clean entertainment were getting very rough and grimy. And on top of that, it had supremely
memeable sequences. James Franco has, you know,
the first of many A24 scenes that would just become this sort of
perfect little tidbit. —He has this speech.
—[overlapping] Look at my shit. I. got short Every fucking color.
Scarface on repeat. It was just this
weird sort of thing that really had just caught on. Their innovative online
marketing strategy leveraged gifts and memes
to make the movie buzzy. Like this one that amassed over 20,000 thumbs up
on Facebook which... you know, doesn't sound
like a lot now. But you got to remember, this was
2013 back when the LA Times was calling likes thumbs ups. Anyways, the marketing worked. The movie ended up setting
per screen attendance records for its opening weekend as well as clocking the biggest
premiere of the movie in limited release that year. The second weekend... everybody talked a lot about
how they hated the movie... but their first weekend was incredible. That movie was a huge
word of mouth hit. If you look at how much money it made compared to other films you know, it doesn't really stand out. But if you look at how much money it makes
compared to other... independent films from that era,
like it was a huge hit. And crucially, it proved that
the A24 method worked. If they could keep curating distinct,
vibey movies marketing them online for less money
and more virality and distributing them in a way where the box office
can rival the budget... then they were in business. And oh boy, were they in business. They were able to create such a strong brand. You knew in your head kind of
what an A24 film was. And I think that's down to
their sense of taste. I don't know of any other studio
that has such an almost like a personal style in that way. They helped launch careers
for Ari Aster the Daniels and Robert Eggers. And afforded directorial debuts to Greta Gerwig, Jonah Hill,
and Bo Burnham. They would find these up and coming
directors and be like we are going to sort of usher you
to the next level. Ex-Machina showed their shrewdness in marketing as they created a Tinder account for Alicia Vikander's lead character... inviting men to watch the movie. And films like Room became
big hits at the Oscars. They won their first Oscars
in 2016. They won best actress for
Brie Larson and Room. They won best visual effects
for Ex Machina. And they won Best Documentary for Amy. So they were they had been on the scene,
they had been respected. They had sort of known how to play
the industry game. You know, they weren't too cool for it. They weren't holding their heads above it. And four years in after curating a strong brand
off of other people's movies... they decided to produce
one on their own. So Moonlight was the first film
that they made themselves. There was a bet on Barry Jenkins who had made only one other feature
and eight years before this point... and they basically said, like, we will let you do totally whatever you want and
we will support you visually. It does look a lot like
other A24 films. You know, you have that neon you have that very subjective lighting. Moonlight — that was when they get
the reputation, I think for like, oh, you know,
it's not just online hype. They're not just like buzzy. They are going to release
some great, great films. If you look at the films they
have produced since Moonlight it's a lot of the movies we think of as like very-A24:
Uncut Gems. It's Everything Everywhere All At Once. You know, it's these movies that are
these big, bold brand statements. In 2017, they expanded to TV. When you talk to people
who watch Euphoria a lot of them don't know
that it's an A24 series... because Euphoria airs on HBO which is a very strong brand,
a very big brand. And that kind of crowds out the A24 of it all. But Beef airs on Netflix, which has
a much smaller brand. And, you know, suddenly that allows the A24 of it all
to kind of jump out. And as a cherry on top, they make merch
for themselves not just for the films, you know,
they will sell A24 T-shirts and A24 hoodies with
that little logo on it. And that sort of helps build
that sort of cult around this, you know, editorial sensibility that they have. And they employ a lot of the techniques
that the fashion industry has too. You know they will do collaborations with, you know,
online ceramics. They will do with limited edition drops where you've got to get your hands
on something now. They build this sense of
exclusivity around it where it becomes, you know, there are there are A24 merch heads you know, who are really hoping to get
the latest stuff. It's something that no other indie studio
has quite managed to pull off. When you look at their trajectory
in retrospect it's easy to be dazzled into thinking that they've got
the Midas touch. And in some ways they do. —But...
—We don't need to build them up too much. Like any studio, they make
bad films too. You just might not notice it because A24 puts out a ton
of movies every year as compared to other studios,
both big and small. In 2022, the studio put out
20 films. That's 2 more than Paramount a studio that's way larger than they are. But they have a unique way of hiding their bad films and
making them go away. They had a deal with DirecTV. They now have a deal with Apple TV where you know, movies that maybe they don't think are quite pass muster. They'll just go straight there. You know, those ones won't play
at the metrograph. Those ones will be playing at you know, your cool indie theater. They will kind of be quietly shuffled off to,
you know, DirectTV. Maybe people will find them. But if people don't find them,
you know, maybe that's okay, too. You look at the list of A24 films,
there's dozens of them that you have never heard of that
nobody has ever heard of. The Adderall Diaries The Kill Team. Revenge of the Green Dragons. These are movies that truly do not exist. But their missteps don't seem to matter much when they're tried and true strategies
create such big wins. When I talk to the fans last year some of them readily admitted,
oh yeah, like I'm in the cult, I'm deep
in the cult. And when I ask like, I asked them why the key thing was difference. There's so much these days that
feels sort of the same feels very corporate, very controlled that that was kind of the one thing that they all kind of agreed on is that like when they go see an A24 film you know, it might be good. There's a chance, it might be terrible,
but, you know, they know it's going to be just like a little weirder,
a little more offbeat. Ideally, it's going to be something
they haven't seen before. The name means nothing. The name is there's no symbolism. The name is an Italian highway
that leads out of Rome... that I think Katz was driving on. And he was like, oh, that would be
a good name for a company. But it sort of fits, right? Because it's abstract. It’s sort of mysterious,
and you're like, Oh, there must be a hidden meaning there.
You know? I often like some of the films,
you know, you're like... you know, there must be something there. It sparks of curiosity, in a way.
Step 1: Make original movies Step 2: profit
I'd go see an A24 movie even if all I knew about the movie was it was an A24 movie.
Well fingers crossed they hit Kane Parsons Backrooms movie out of the park.
Just so we’re clear, Everything Everywhere All at Once is their only film to break the $100m mark and it took that movie winning (almost literally) Every Award Everywhere All at Once to get there.
I appreciate a company letting filmmakers make original movies for seven figure budgets and make them profitable but the idea that they’ve taken over Hollywood is nonsensical hyperbole.
A24 now feel similar to what Miramax was in the 1990s. They take risks on smaller, less conventional films, but the real cause of the success is less so the movies and more so their approach to marketing and publicity. Harvey Weinstein changed a lot about Hollywood and it looks like A24 is aiming to do something similar.
The lighthouse was weird as all fuck
Beef is my all time favorite tv show
The films are well done and don’t cost as much to produce as many Hollywood films?
I have seen many an A24 production and IMO, they have as many misses as they do hits, and I'm not a huge fan of Hereditary, Midsommar, and a handful of what the critics are raving about, but I did watch them and get why others may enjoy them. The thing is that the movies I do love by them, I absolutely went bonkers for. The Whale, X, Pearl and Bodies, Bodies Bodies I found incredibly entertaining, but Under the Silver Lake is my favorite film from them. It took me to places I wanted to be, both real and surreal and had such a warmth to it that it was palpable and welcoming. I am looking forward to their new releases because, even if they don't always give me my cup of tea, they are always a new experience and never boring. This seems to be a product of their hands off approach with directors. Other production companies could learn a thing or 2 from them.