How film studio A24 became a hip quality mark in ten years

A scented candle with ‘A24’ written on it. Bath towels, coffee mugs, caps, socks: it’s all for sale in the webshop of the American film studio A24. If there is still stock, because the pretty pricey merchandise is flying out the door. There is even a brisk trade in second-hand A24 gear, with the price still likely to flip a few times.

How do you turn a mug with a company logo – the silliness at its best – into a must-have? It’s one of the secrets of A24, the studio behind movies like moonlight, hereditary, Lady Bird, Red Rocket and Halina Reijn’s new horror satire Bodies Bodies Bodies. The company, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this month, has a surprisingly high name recognition, especially among young people. They associate it with everything cool.

Few film studios have been given such brand value. Most movie buffs are interested in actors and directors, not the companies that finance their movies. Marvel, of the superhero empire, counts as a logical exception. Some animation studios, such as Pixar or the British Aardman, also have their followers. But who is specifically looking forward to the new movie from, grab it, Universal or Sony? That now applies to A24: every new title is received with great anticipation on TikTok or Twitter.

A24, contrary to New York instead of the film city of Los Angeles, has managed to become a quality mark in ten years’ time. A hip quality mark, moreover, part of the lifestyle of people in their twenties and teenagers who want to count in the cultural field. That’s great for a company that focuses on independent cinema, but still a bit the healthy fare of the film on offer. The audience for such films seemed to be aging sharply in recent decades; the youth were only attracted to blockbusters.

In 2012, founders David Fenkel, Daniel Katz and John Hodges could not have foreseen that influencers would dedicate countless TikToks to A24, or that twenty-somethings would celebrate their birthday with an A24 themed party. What they did know was that there was room for a film studio with an eye for what resonated with the image-conscious part of the youth. One of the first films that A24 bought (in the first years the company only acted as a distributor, from 2016 it also started producing films itself) was Spring Breakers, of cross talent Harmony Korine. The film hardly had a plot, but James Franco with gold teeth and Selena Gomez in bikini. There was money in it, or at least an internet hype, A24 understood.

You can put up posters all over town hoping to attract an audience for a movie, you can also provide a good meme. A24 was the first movie studio to create a Tinder account for a movie character – the female robot from Ex Machina. Also a handy move was the Twitter account of Black Phillip, the satanic goat from horror film The Witch. Once you start paying attention, you will see how good the studio is at online marketing: there is almost no A24 film that has not been released on the internet in bite-sized chunks. The drunken sailors out The Lighthousethe bad friend played by Timothée Chalamet from Lady Birdthey still come by regularly.

It explains A24’s preference for eccentric films, such as the hyperactive work of brothers Josh and Benny Safdie (Good Time, Uncut Gems) or the absurdist creations of Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer). The crazier the content, the more it stands out. Recent A24 titles like Lamb and Everything Everywhere All at Once fit into that list. If you look at it cynically, you will see not only originality, but also a whole reservoir of pre-cooked internet jokes. Perfect for a generation that likes to use movies to define themselves.

Yet the success of A24 is not only due to its brilliant marketing. The studio has taste and gives idiosyncratic filmmakers space. There are of course mistakes, but the catalog of more than a hundred titles of A24 is above all a parade of beautiful films. From Kelly Reichardts First Cow to Sean Bakers The Florida Project and by Paul Schraders First Reformed to Bo Burnhams Eighth Grade, the list is long and varied. Original horror films are a specialty of A24 (The Witch, Midsommar, Bodies Bodies Bodies), but the studio invests in understated personal drama just as much as Joanna Hoggs The Souvenir. Or in documentaries like Asif Kapadia’s Amy.

The A24 film therefore does not exist, although there are signs to watch out for. Does the main character die halfway through, is there an infectious dance scene, is there slang or a special dialect? Is Actor Robert Pattinson Joining? Then there is a good chance that A24 is behind it. Another clue is the use of color. A24 filmmakers often have a striking preference, for example for neon shades, or for all shades of mustard yellow. Black and white is also an option.

The question is how long A24 can maintain its success. Cult status usually does not last long. While the studio could do no harm to both the public and the film press for years, there is now cautious criticism. Isn’t it getting a bit out of hand with marketing? And aren’t the films starting to look alike? There seems to be a parallel with Miramax, the studio of Harvey Weinstein (and his brother Robert) that achieved great success with independent films in the 1990s with sophisticated advertising campaigns. After ten years, the fun was gone: the Miramax logo no longer stood for quality, but for commercial films angling for Oscars, lacking depth, with an artistic sauce.

A24 also threatens to become a parody of itself, could be read last week in New York Magazine. Those funny T-shirts and towels are a hit with a very large audience – where is your credibility as a cult studio? Again and again rumors surface that A24 wants to be taken over for a huge amount by an entertainment giant such as Amazon or Disney. What also does not suit everyone is the ease with which A24 exchanges the cinema for the small screen: the studio regularly closes deals with streaming platforms.

A year ago, competitor Neon, also an independent film company, already made a joke in the online magazine Deadline. Neon founder Tom Quinn said whichever path A24 chooses, he will continue to focus on small films. “We remain true to our values,” Quinn said. “In any case, what we’re not going to do is sell scented candles for $50.”

A24 is best known for slightly noisy films with bizarre plot twists and other gimmicks. Yet the studio has also produced calm, subdued dramas. Five beautiful examples.