Matthew Mandel

A24 has been a saving grace for keeping cool weird stuff in moving pictures for the last decade. They absolutely dominated the Oscars this year, which nicely marked how significant they’ve become in the non-Marvel section of the movie world. The Generalist recently put out a great piece on their history and, most interestingly, their future:

A24 hit a homerun on the first movie they produced by doubling down on their unconventionality:

… A24 reviewed an adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. It had been written by McCraney and Barry Jenkins, a 37-year-old filmmaker with a largely undistinguished background. Jenkins had built a career as a director and writer without breaking into Hollywood circles. He’d directed a few short films, written for HBO’s The Leftovers, and worked as a carpenter to make ends meet. By Jenkins’ own admission, he and Moonlight represented an unorthodox choice for the new production house.

“If I told you I was opening a Hollywood studio and the first film I was going to put my money into was going to be a triptych film about a gay black boy whose mom was addicted to drugs, made by a filmmaker who’s only made one film for $15,000, would you say, ‘Yes, that sounds like an awesome idea?’ Probably not,” Jenkins said. “But these people did.”

Moonlight of course went on to win Best Picture and make $65mm on a budget of just $4mm.

On the A24 brand:

Like few other studios, A24 has built a unique identity for itself, a singular voice. Though its filmography crosses genres, ranging from “psychological thrillers set in 1890s lighthouses to slapstick romps about intergenerational trauma,” there’s an unmistakable throughline. A24 products have a level of craft, personality, and specificity that stands apart. It’s this final quality that’s particularly notable. As one commenter noted, “The studio doesn’t just make a ‘high-school movie,’ it makes a ‘Catholic school in Sacramento in the spring of 2003 movie.’”

Isn’t that such an evocative way to describe their shtick?

The relationship between the movie and music businesses:

In 1958, Jack Warner launched a music business. The Warner Bros. executive did so less in keeping with a considered strategy, more in a pique of jealousy. The year prior, one of the studio’s actors, Tab Hunter, had released the song “Young Love.” The record quickly climbed to the top of the Billboard charts and would go on to sell more than two million copies. The only problem? Hunter’s song had been produced by Dot Records, a subsidiary of rival studio, Paramount. To ensure his firm profited from Hunter’s next album, and the musical creations the rest of its talent pool might produce, Warner Music was created. Over the intervening six-and-a-half decades, it has grown to become the third-largest label in the world.

and:

It’s intriguing to consider how A24 might develop its musical ambitions. Will it look to apply its formidable talent-spotting skill to find up-and-coming bands? Its cinematic distribution gives it an advantage over standalone indie labels. As seen with Netflix’s Stranger Things, popular shows can be kingmakers in the charts. The placement of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” in the show gave Bush her first UK number one in 44 years and first ever US Top 10 hit, 37 years after the song’s debut. Young artists looking to make their mark could do worse than snagging a spot in an episode of Euphoria.

XR is going to make the eventual A24 high brow horror experience insane:

A24 has spent the last decade innovating online, but its next innovation may be in the physical world. The studio recently purchased the storied Manhattan venue Cherry Lane Theatre. According to a company source, A24 sees itself as stewards of the theater for the next generation. They want it to be a home for creators – Adam Sandler and Ari Aster have already done events there.

In the short term, it would be interesting to see A24 produce a show in a similar vein to Sleep No More. The sprawling, immersive rendition of Macbeth is played out across the floors of a hotel and designed for a mature audience. The show’s production company, Punchdrunk, earns a reported $25 million annually. While that’s no Magic Kingdom, it would certainly be a start.

Should Apple buy A24?

While Apple has created works of real quality, its projects have struggled to capture attention. A Vulture piece titled “Apple TV+ Is Doing Better Than You Think” summarized the initiative’s status as a rather unheralded success. Apple’s weakness in this endeavor is arguably A24’s greatest strength. As we’ve discussed, Katz and Fenkel are masters of marketing and building hype around their projects. What kind of force multiplier might they be able to create on Apple’s investments? How might their catalog elevate Apple’s relatively thin library?

Barbie is a fascinating test case for A24. It’s a very quirky and personal creation from one of the greatest living directors and made a billion dollars. Joker is also bizarre and voice-y – and IP-centric and also made a billion dollars. Where should that mode of film fit for A24?

It may not be long before we see A24 bring its magic to Mattel IP. Even before Barbie’s release, the toy maker teed up a staggering list of 45 features in development: among them Hot Wheels and Thomas the Tank Engine. Can you imagine the absolute fever dream an A24 version of those films would be? A Banshees of Inisheerin-style tragedy about a breakdown between Thomas and Percy? Hot Wheels delivered in Yorgos Lanthimos’ halting dialogue? Polly Pocket rendered in the evocative palette and cinematography of The Green Knight?

Properties of this magnitude would give A24 the chance to 10x the $140 million Everything Everywhere grossed. But it would also present key challenges. Earlier in this piece, we outlined how size often determines strategy. The smaller operator has options available to it that the larger one does not. Can A24 be A24 at ten times the size? Can it retain its singular voice when shepherding some Mattel monolith or Hasbro confection?

There’s also analysis of the company’s early history, comparisons to venture funds, thinking on how to incorporate AI without alienating artists, and more.