Daniel Radcliffe (actor, Swiss Army Man): Ive had experiences on films in the past where they get bought by somebody who sees something in it that they like, which is nice, but it also happens to be notand is sometimes antithetical towhat the people who made the film wanted it to be. It specializes in film distribution, and film and television production. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. Katz: Yeah! Aizenberg: When I came to A24, they had Charles Swan already. Beyer: There were like a few ads that we made. Please, just let those two!. Although A24's actual net worth is not known. I felt like we were all on the same team. From It Follows to The Babadook, these horror gems didnt have blockbuster budgets. This fall A24 enters the awards race in a serious way for the first time, with two movies: the accessible David Foster Wallace biopic The End of the Tour, and the Brie Larsonstarring literary adaptation Room, which recently won the coveted Peoples Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. The first: Barry Jenkins Moonlight, which chronicles a gay mans coming of age across three stages of his life in war on drugsera Miami. A24s initial funding came via an infusion of capital from Guggenheim Partners, the investment firm at which Katz previously oversaw film financing. Garland: I would say that if Ex Machina had been distributed by a big studiothis isnt actually a criticism of studios; its actually just a statement of factthe film would not have been remotely as well received or successful as it was. Four short years later, the companys first original production, Barry Jenkinss Moonlight, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Likewise, A24 loves Sundance acquisition Mississippi Grind, a tremendously appealing riff on Robert Altmans California Split that co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn as compulsive gamblers on a road trip to nowhere. An A24 project is far more likely to be female-driven than a film released by another company, and it is typically directed by a major filmmaker (Sally Potter, Sofia Coppola, Noah Baumbach) or a filmmaker on the cusp of becoming one (J.C. Chandor, James Ponsoldt). Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Sacco: We probably saw 20 versions. And, like, within two blocks, I have to stop. Over the past six years I have been fortunate to work with a diverse group of talented storytellers across film and TV and look forward to continuing those collaborations in my future endeavors.. And I think that really helped the movie. In September 2013, A24 struck a partnership valued up to $40 millionwith satellite television provider DirecTV. Losing a movieI wanted to jump off a bridge. The outfit is new enough that the same people have been working there from the very beginning, and the consistency of their titles reflects that of their tastes. The bottom line is that there were 677 new releases in 2013, and that number is only getting bigger. We were about to have two movies [Ex Machina and While Were Young] with him. In the fall of 2012, A24 arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival with a plan to acquire several movies. John Hodges (co-founder and co-head of TV, . When historians of the future try to pinpoint the precise moment that the film industry crawled out of its deathbed and back onto its feet, theres a good chance theyll land somewhere in March 2013, when a fledgling distribution company called A24 Films transformed a Harmony Korine movie starring a cornrowed James Franco into a genuine cultural event. So when I saw that, I was like, Okay, those guys, they know what they are doing.. The films backers will be made whole, its makers will get another chance at bat, and its distributors will continue to enjoy the financial solvency provided by the DirecTV dealnot to mention the $50 million line of credit the company secured last fall. Sacco: To engrave the Spring Breakers logo onto the glass-gun bong. Franco: I would bet that [Alien] was one of the biggest, most popular Halloween costumes that year. Yes, Scream VI Marketing Is Behind the Creepy Ghostface Sightings Causing Scares Across the U.S. David Oyelowo, Taylor Sheridan's 'Bass Reeves' Series at Paramount+ Casts King Richard Star Demi Singleton (EXCLUSIVE), Star Trek: Discovery to End With Season 5, Paramount+ Pushes Premiere to 2024. Sacco: Its sobering and motivating in a different way. Signed on as producer beginning with the third season. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, noted A24 in a statement. With Hodges leaving, the. [19], In January 2017, the company acquired the United States and Chinese distribution rights for their first foreign language film, Menashe. And I think A24 and companies like that areyou know, people want to go to the cinema. I liked the fact that they had never made a doc. And then we opened. A24 co-founder John Hodges is exiting the indie company to "focus on future opportunities," he and the company jointly announced on Monday. Aizenberg: Yeah. Kapadia: Theyve won Best Picture. No one had a voice. Stay plugged in to the industry with our free newsletter. we don't have a good idea of their yearly revenue either as the most recent stats were from 2012 estimating around $20 million, but that wasn't putting into account pure profit only the overall gross of all the films released that year. I think my sisters still only seen one A24 movie: Spring Breakers. Like Under the Skin, Locke, Enemy. And [my producer] kept saying it, and I kept thinking, Okay, at some point Ill figure out what hes talking about. And then over the course of, like, four months, we bought a lot of movies. Hodges. He later left A24 on March 2018 to focus on future opportunities. [laughs] I remember I had to have a conversation with Alicia about it, where she was saying, What the hell? and I was saying, I dont know. Over the past six years I have been fortunate to work with a diverse group of talented storytellers across film and TV and look forward to continuing those collaborations in my future endeavors.. The company said he will exit to focus on "future opportunities," but did not clarify beyond that statement.. (Make a left out of the elevators, and then a right at the cafeteria workers.). Garland: I didnt know what Tinder was until the festival. That was the first time it screened for U.S. audiences. It was social media. Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Beyer: I remember when we had Room, like, six months after Ex Machina or something, Fenkel was like, Whats the Tinder for Room? And I was like, No, no! Love that movie. When it wasnt us. 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. When your audience does the work for you. Patrick Stewart (actor, Green Room): [The premiere of Green Room] was at the Toronto Film Festivals Midnight Madness. Franco: All the distributors knew it was great. And the guy asked me, Is there anything we might find suspicious in there? I said, Theres an art piece inside in the shape of a gun. And literally the entire security department was like, What is wrong with you? Long story short, it made it through. We want to go two thousand screens. Its true that most audiences may not care about who it is thats releasing the movies they see, but an A24 film demands even casual viewers to consider the source. These films speak for themselves. God bless em. If theaters are to remain something more than a repository for superhero movies, everybody might have to be. The company is behind instant fan favorites like Uncut Gems, Ladybird, The Lighthouse, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. But I do remember finally looking over, because I didnt know where they were sitting, and I spotted Dan Katz and Dave Fenkel, and, man, the smile on their faces! John. On the most literal level, an A24 film is budgeted from anywhere between $1 million (Obvious Child) and $20 million (A Most Violent Year). This story appears in the summer issue of GQ Style. Johns experience and taste is evident in the films he has developed and produced over the years. Suddenly, in order to be financially viable, a project has to cost less than $2 million or more than $200 million. Key grip. (For context, the Spring Breakers Facebook page has 1.1 million likes, while that for Fox Searchlights Best Picture-winning Birdman has only 289,000.) Fenkel: You dont know how to control yourself. The movie was Spring Breakers, it played like a Kesha music video as directed by Terrence Malick on MDMA, and it debuted to the highest per-screen average of any film released that year to date. junio 12, 2022. cottage for sale in timmins on . Wouldnt call us back. When the film comes out in early 2016, it will arrive exclusively in theaters, and its trial by fire will be exclusively in theaters. [8] In October 2012, Nicolette Aizenberg joined as head of publicity from 42West where she was senior publicity executive. Producer: Safety Not Guaranteed. They kept shutting us down. A24 went on a spending spree and released 11 movies in their second year of operation. Sacco: We were on our way to the bathroom. Villeneuve: If my memorys good, I was amongst their, not their first movies, but they were a young company at the time. We were watching it the whole time. Selena and Ashley had no issue with this. Aizenberg: I remember that Sunday we all got on the phone and were like, Were going over a thousand screens.. I say, Dont go there. Because what happened was, someone ran out with a red envelope. Then he had this very high-tech, nuanced process, which was printing out a spreadsheet, and then when he would book a theater, he would write it down on the spreadsheet, and then when the spreadsheet was full, hed push it over from his desk to my desk. When you can get a distribution company that likes the film for the same reasons that people that made it like the filmIve found that rare. BREAKING: John Hodges, one of the founding members of A24, has announced his departure from the production and distribution studio to focus on future opportunities. But we got A Glimpse Inside the Mind. The company may be a lovely acquisition target for a buyer seeking an arthouse pipeline,but A24 is still building itself as a brand one that is synonymous with quality. Films distributed by A24 ended up getting nominated for seven Academy Awards that year, including Best Picture (Room), Actress (Brie Larson), Documentary (Amy), and Original Screenplay (Ex Machina). Three were winners. How A24 is Disrupting Hollywood. No way., Katz: It was just like, Wait. We saw the red envelope. Tinder was yelling at us. Jeremy Kleiner (producer, Plan B, Moonlight): It wasnt like, Oh, this is low-hanging fruit, lets grab on to this one. It was a passionate embrace of the movie. And so anytime you speak with someone whos not a pure accountant, is not a pencil pusher? In pretty decent seats, actually. Katz: We broke the record that weekend. And then its like on the biggest stage, I didnt thank anybody! If I had to guess, Id wager that Hodges was simply ready to move on after reaching the top of the mountain winning Best Picture for Moonlight. Katz, Fenkel and Hodges prior to A24 worked in film and production, before leaving to eventually co-found the company, So long as A24 continues tooperate independently and make edgy films from newcomers and established veterans alike, Ill be a happy moviegoer. I think I made out with my wife in front of people. Fenkel: I was at the Union Square theater, and they couldnt have had enough theaters. Its infamously irreverent official Twitter account, run by an employee named Zoe Beyer, is as likely to tweet about the Spice Girls or trash-talk Tom Cruise as it is to tweet about one of the companys own movies. Theyre just on it. And we broke records. Other companies wanted to do stuff with it. Fenkel: Look at The Witch. But the back end was so crazy. Spring Breakers had a whole Oscar campaign: Consider This Shit.Zoe Beyer. The fact that we were able to sign any movies out of that office is absurd. And I was ready to say: It was me! And although it describes itself as Midnight Madness, the film didnt start until close to one oclock in the morning. Franco: I remember the South by Southwest festival, the screeningit was like a rock concert. Nicolette Aizenberg (distribution executive, A24): It is very cyclical. Said Korine: They saw that marketing was a creative act that could be entertaining in and of itself. But it was word of mouth. [27], A24 distributes and produces around 18 to 20 films a year. He was calling me. I love Moonlight, said as much before it won the Oscar, and Ill say it again now - I showed it to my daughters early and they loved it. Which is vanishingly rare in the film industry. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. As Korine told Rolling Stone: I want to do the most radical work, but put it out in the most commercial way. A24 just took him up on it. Jenkins: I just would never allow myself to believe that something I made could win Best Picture. And on some level, honestly, I was afraid to go out on my own and try to make it work. Gif excerpt from the film The End of the Tour via A24 Films. Or a screenwriter. For a start, it was founded on the wrong coast - New York, not Los Angeles - by three relatively young arthouse film executives, Daniel Katz, David. No additional changes in management will be made, said A24, which will continue to develop and produce a growing slate of content across film and television. I felt like there was a huge opportunity to create something where the talented people could be talented. When I was explaining to people what I was doing, it felt like a political campaign. Leave it to Jim Jarmusch to make the coolest vampire movie ever. And so anytime you speak with someone whos not a pure accountant, is not a pencil pusher? Korine: I could tell that they were on some new shit, you know? Everybody wants to be A24. It was, like, every time another person walked out, I was like, Oh, there goes another one!, Sacco: All my friends and family, they kept asking about this new company. Katz: We did great movies. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Animated photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. A24 is cool and I know they say great things about Miramax, which makes me feel proud and old at the same time. Katz: Tuesday morning, I remember, we had a little whiskey for him. Whatever lingering reservations I had about the VOD side of A24s business were dismantled by the recent rumblings of a demonically possessed goat: The DirecTV logo may still be lurking toward the bottom of The Witchs teaser poster (which accurately identifies and champions Black Phillip as the movies breakout star), but at some point along the way it was decided that this crowd-pleasing, pants-ruining work of art has the makings of a communal sensation, and A24 pivoted. [He won at least six.] Discover Johnny Hodges's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. NetWorthSpot.com's industry expertise thinks A24's net worth at $1.89 million, but A24's finalized net worth is still being verified. "I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Jax,". Beyer: It was all about this tension between, like, trying to legitimize ourselves as a real company that can handle working with, like, big. [18] In June, the company, along with Oscilloscope and distributor Honora, joined BitTorrent Now to distribute the work of their portfolio across the ad-supported service. The company also announced that they would also finance and develop pilots. Aizenberg: When I started, we didnt have Spring Breakers yet, but the whole focus of that very first meeting I went to was like, How do we get Spring Breakers? If its gonna be released the same way by another company, we usually dont go after it. Barry Jenkins (director, Moonlight): A24s the kind of company where they say, Yeah, they dont need to know what its about. So what is an A24 film? Please only use it for a guidance and A24 (company)'s actual income may vary a lot from the dollar amount shown above. Gif excerpt from the film Ex Machina via A24 Films. Like, you believe in something, you fall in love with it, and then you work for three months on trying to make it work. Earlier this year I was drinking in a hotel bar with the head of another distribution company at a film festival. They just need to know how it feels.. They were thinking in a different way, trying something newer and maybe more radical with their approach. Fenkel: If you look at our films, we bought The Lobster in February and released it in May. A24 took Ex Machina to the 2015 South by Southwest festival and built a Tinder chatbot with the face of Alicia Vikander to help promote the film. Fenkel: And they were like, You cant do that! But A24 has the money to acquire a steady slate of releases, the model to support them, and the chutzpah to make nearly each one into a mini-phenomenon. I think when we started [2016], it was another, like, what Id consider a building year. The photo has been replaced. And I think thats the main thing, Id say. Its such a really fucking well-executed movie. What are you working on? There is no Tinder for Room! Jenkins: We shot for five weeks, and they came down during the first week. Probably the best place to screen-test the movie. And you could tell that it was in their reach. He also produced . Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. The things about it that didnt were what made me most excited, both for Moonlight and the future of a company thats confident enough in its sense of self to stretch toward something new. So it was strange, if you were a moviegoer in 2013, to see the A24 logo pop up again and again before movies as varied and weird as Harmony Korines Spring Breakers and Sofia Coppolas The Bling Ring, James Ponsoldts The Spectacular Now and Roman Coppolas A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. Jul 2021 - Present1 year 7 months. Fenkel: Id love to say from the first cut we knew. Its trio of foundersDaniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges, whod known each other through years of work in New Yorks indie movie circuitrarely granted interviews. In recent years, the recession and the concurrent rise of VOD streaming services have already torpedoed the midbudget movie. That was 2013. The fact theyre vampires might just be an excuse for them to wear sunglasses indoors. As of April 2022[update], twenty-seven episodes had been released. But A24, it became clear when I spoke to the companys employees, saw Spring Breakers as a Trojan horse for progressive cinemathe company less concerned about the nine kids who found the film too weird than they were the one kid who went home and rented Gummo. Its DirecTV/A24 release grossed $229,094 and never played on more than 54 screens. They dont have the personality of movie executives. Dave Franco & Alison Brie Take a Couples Quiz, Heres a First Look at Daniel Lees Burberry, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez Are Shaping NASCAR's Future, Inside Daniel Lee's Burberry Debut, London Fashion Week's Biggest Show. Katz: They were kind of comfortable with the Under the Skin release. Theyre on the tarmac, and were having to find a new jet for them within twenty minutes. And with the opening weekend, with the numbers that we did, it became very clear that, yes, this is a viable strategy, to keep this very small, gay, art-house hood-ass filmlike, yeah, were just gonna keep it in theaters. Katz: People say, Oh, Barry, why didnt you bring us Moonlight?As if that was the most obvious Best Picture! Nandan: I remember seeing a screener of [The Witch], and yeah, it was like, oh, right, howd that movie not sell for more money? Since the small blast of trade articles that greeted the companys inception, theyve remained unusually quiet. And then, in 08, the bubble burst, and the economic downturn probably had a little bit of impact. So everything had to be explained to me, and by the time it was explained, it was over. We still dont. Notable guests on the show have included Bo Burnham, Paul Schrader, Sofia Coppola, Alia Shawkat and Martin Scorsese. But what happens when the titles involved in this deal get bettera lot better? It would be fascinating for just the unnerving dread of an awkward gathering of friends, but Kusama then provides the film a killer twist. All the actors had taken the risk. The tech titan is reportedly in the midst of dropping $1 billion on original content, but has yet to make a major film market move. A24 has also been nominated and won many Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards, and Critics' Choice Movie Awards. When we started, we wanted it to be about the films and filmmakers, not us, Katz told the Hollywood Reporter at the end of 2013, and that culture remains evident in all aspects of their business. As one of the founding members of the New York-based company, Hodges played a key role. 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