(He won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Supporting Actor). Miramax, they were a huge deal, and also Fox Searchlight. [11][12], In September 2013, A24 entered a $40 million deal with DirecTV Cinema, where DirecTV Cinema would offer day-and-date releases 30 days prior to a theatrical release by A24; Enemy was the first film to be distributed under the deal. Your vision is incredible.. The company offered no additional details other than to say his vacancy would not lead to any additional changes in management. Katz, Fenkel and Hodges all got together in 2012 and decided to make their late night yammerings a reality. Hodges had run A24 with David Fenkel and Daniel Katz as a ruling troika, albeit one that operated without offices (located in Chelsea, the company was known for its open space and banquette tables). Its exciting. Fenkel: If you look at our films, we bought The Lobster in February and released it in May. But I remember vividly that they had chosen some specific movies, one of which was Under the Skin. And The Place Beyond the Pines. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, noted A24 in a statement. I thought it would get a distributorI thought it was good enough for that. Really? Producer: Safety Not Guaranteed. Villeneuve: If my memorys good, I was amongst their, not their first movies, but they were a young company at the time. (Blindsided teens, many of whom had been intrigued at the thought of seeing former Disney star Selena Gomez in a more mature performance, assailed the Internet with complaints that they had paid to see the Worst Movie Ever Made.) I felt like there was a huge opportunity to create something where the talented people could be talented.
How A24 is Disrupting Hollywood | GQ Jax Media Taps A24 Co-Founder John Hodges as Head of New Film - Variety A24 may not yet inspire the same kind of blind devotion in theatergoers that the Criterion Collection does in home video obsessives, but its the only indie distributor that feasibly could. And on some level, honestly, I was afraid to go out on my own and try to make it work. And in that moment I was like: Now its time to go do this. That Oscar win came within five years of A24s launch, but so did Open Roads win for Spotlight, and now that company is part of the larger entity Global Road. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. I was proud of the film but I thought it was weird and boring. For a medium-size film to succeed without a marketing blitz twice the size of its production budget, its not enough for it to be goodit has to have a hook.
How A24 Revolutionised What It Means To Be A Film Studio Four short years later, the companys first original production, Barry Jenkinss Moonlight, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Uncut Gems ($50 million). And when youre a loser, you think for a split second, Maybe they got it wrong. So long as A24 continues tooperate independently and make edgy films from newcomers and established veterans alike, Ill be a happy moviegoer. While there is speculation in the trades that A24 may be on the block, I get the impression that sale rumors are just that rumors. People want to see movies. Across 96 films released at the time of this article, the average Production Budget on each film rounds out to a cool $6 million, with the Box Office revenue across the 96 films adding up to $798 million. Gif excerpt from the film The End of the Tour via A24 Films.
The rise and rise of A24, a champion of storytelling on screen How A24 is Disrupting Hollywood. All Rights Reserved. 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. Ask for forgiveness. I think it just showed that we cared about these movies so much. Fenkel: And then I started saying, No way. All rights reserved. John Hodges is leaving A24, the Oscar-winning indie studio that he co-founded. Fenkel: I stare straight ahead. He later left A24 on March 2018 to focus on future opportunities. Radcliffe (actor, Swiss Army Man): I could see them saying, like: Weve got a reputation now, and have money now. A lot of people in that position would then go, Okay, lets become quite conservative in our choices. And whats lovely is they are choosing to still channel that stuff back into supporting weird, different, ambitious ventures. Get it now by subscribing here. But we got A Glimpse Inside the Mind. Katz: That was a good learning experience for us. Although A24's actual net worth is not known. Fenkel: [Katz] is a better runner than I am. Annapurna Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection, Moonlights Mahershala Ali Picks His Own Oscar Winners. I mean, I have no idea what theyre doing, really. An A24 film has an affinity for subverting a celebritys established persona. And check out the haunting synth score by Disasterpiece.
John Hodges - IMDb But youre in a tuxedo and everyone around you is older and theyre quiet Jenkins: It sucks, man, because of how it happened, none of us thanked them! Fenkel: And we had a booker at the time, this big old school guy, gentle giant, hes a sweet guy, but kind of a gangster, but levels of, like, cool gangster. The indies can be liquid and fluid. A24 may be growing fast, but no one has displayed greater agility in navigating the waters of a business that constantly seems to be changing course. Rather than focusing on acquisitions, as was its early strategy, A24 is now producing its own movies, as well as its own podcast. Sacco: We probably saw 20 versions. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Since then, A24's success has been immeasurable, especially for an independent Production company founded the same year The Avengers came out. I think when we started [2016], it was another, like, what Id consider a building year. Fifty-six-year-old guy. People had thought that entire part of the industry had just died. When I was explaining to people what I was doing, it felt like a political campaign. In 2016, films distributed by A24 won Academy Awards for Best Actress (Brie Larson in Room), Best Documentary Feature (Amy), and Best Visual Effects (Ex Machina). That was tough. PARK CITY, Utah At the Sundance Film Festival here in January, executives at A24, the upstart movie and television studio, stood in the back of a makeshift theater looking as if . 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. You could tell that they wanted to be great. Other indie labels, like Megan Ellisons Annapurna Pictures (which co-produced Spring Breakers), tend to go in the other direction, releasing a minuscule handful of movies into the currents of Oscar season in the hopes that the waters will carry them toward a crowd. We wanted to deliver in a meaningful way. When an A24 acquisitions exec pitched the story to me, excitedly laying out the plot in broad but heartbreaking strokes, he asked if it sounded like an A24 film. [29][30], "A24 Films" redirects here. 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.. Hes not gonna be able to do this right now. Our first release. The photo has been . 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. I woke up one morning to an e-mail from Daniel that was sent at three in the morning: Can you go to Pittsburgh? I come into the office, and there are interns running around like in some crazy factory. Stay plugged in to the industry with our free newsletter. And so anytime you speak with someone whos not a pure accountant, is not a pencil pusher? The latest is Hereditary, the debut film of Ari Aster that premiered at Sundance and is quickly earning a reputation as one of the scariest movies ever. 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). The second title was Life After Beth, the domestic theatrical haul of which was a paltry $88,273. Hodges. And while they invited me into their headquarters to get a feel for the place and chat on background with the core team, they stressed that theyd prefer their movies to speak for themselves. John Hodges (co-founder and co-head of TV, A24): It was one of those conversations where it was always like, How would we do it differently? And it was usually fueled by beer and things scribbled down on napkins and a lot of bravado.
John Hodges - Head of Film - Jax Media | LinkedIn Moonlight is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor, but loses Best Picture to La La Landwait, what? A24 typically pays a bit more for these movies than it does the ones the it buys itself, andlike most VOD content providersit doesnt make its grosses public. Colin Farrell (actor, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer): They have such a great eye for these small little films and rich and unique stories that may have not found it to the big screen if it wasnt for them. I dunno! I mean, it made sense at the time. Like Under the Skin, Locke, Enemy. Beyer: It was all about this tension between, like, trying to legitimize ourselves as a real company that can handle working with, like, big. Sacco: Gun bongs. Well handle it! And if it works, its them; if it doesnt work, its all your fault anyway. Focused on High Net Worth Policy holders where policy coverage exceeds $1 million. Wanna follow A24 (company)'s net worth? Wouldnt call us back. Hodges has been an integral part of the studio since its inception in 2012. It took us ten minutes to get a block. That was 2013. This monster slowly stalks you when you sleep with the wrong person, and the only way to pass it on is to bed another partner. I just No one had a voice. Theyre one of the few companies that have shown that indie films can still be viable. This is before Wolf of Wall Street came out, but Margot Robbie, I didnt know her, but she was working with somebody that knew my costumer or something, and got in touch with me and was like, Can you print me a photo of the tattoos in detail, so that I can get this costume perfectly? Because she was fucking Alien that year. Judging by the fact that the trailer racked up more than 3 million views in its first week online, the crowds are ready with their pitchforks. Login to view all information @ First movies gonna be so exciting! And I remember everyone came back from that test screening. Katz: By the way, a thousand times out of a thousand, youre wrong. Because they didnt expect the traffic. We allowed them to come on set to see what was happening, and they in turn were sharing their release plans and their marketing materials, and we were commenting on that. That shift points to a greater move afoot at A24, as the company begins to develop its own projects from within.
From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. And then over the course of, like, four months, we bought a lot of movies. This elegant, yet sadistic horror film from Austria resembles Michael Hanekes Funny Games, yet the home invader was under the victims noses all along. We just had to catch up to that idea. Fenkel: And we did this, like, illegal Tinder stuff. Saulnier expertly contains conflict, depth and gore within small confines. 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.
A24 Founding Partner John Hodges to Exit - The Hollywood Reporter 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! We literally didnt know what to do. On the TV side, Jaxs current projects include the recently released Russian Doll on Netflix, starring Natasha Lyonne; The Other Two, which was just picked up for a second season; and the final season of Broad City for Comedy Central. 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. Like, no way in hell. [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.
Jax Media Taps A24 Co-Founder John Hodges as Head of New Film - Variety More recently, it expanded from being an acquisitions-only distributor to producing home-grown fare as well as branching into TV. raised the Oscar at them. Katz: And we were all like, You know what? [20], On February 20, 2018, A24 launched a podcast titled The A24 Podcast. Fenkel: And the Spring Breakers trailer dropped the first day of Sundance, and MTVs servers fucked up, because we gave them the exclusive, and they stopped serving the video. Kapadia: There were other films that had a lot more money in their campaign and were everywhere. Franco: I would bet that [Alien] was one of the biggest, most popular Halloween costumes that year. But if it is, a monastic degree of focus will be required to recognize which A24 titles might fare better on VOD.
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And that question is the birth of fandom. All three had grown up admiring the rich world of 90s independent cinema, and they noticed a void where those movies had once been. They dont have the personality of movie executives. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Greetings From the Vortex of Unpredictability, Robert Pattinson singing Keri Hilsons Pretty Girl Rock. Please! And I think thats the main thing, Id say. They were not the company that they are today. What are you working on? John Hodges is leaving A24, the Oscar-winning indie studio that he co-founded. I dont even look at him. There was nothing bad-spirited about it. Hodges had been an integral part of the studio since its inception in 2012, along with co-founders David Fenkel and Daniel Katz. And A24 was the place that took the risk.
John Hodges - High Net Worth Field Adjuster - LinkedIn Were always cognizant of trying to sell the film by not selling it, said marketing exec Jesse Patrone-Werdiger, speaking to A24s rare faculty for promoting around the product its trying to push, shifting the tectonic plates of culture in the hopes of giving rise to a mountain. In between, A24 went from being a tiny, disorganized room of eight or so people to being the place where big stars like Robert Pattinson and Scarlett Johansson go to make small, strange movies, and auteurs like Jonathan Glazer and Denis Villeneuve go to make deeply personal films unmolested by studio notes or clueless executives. But I think she saw this, and it hijacked her image and personality, and we didnt ask her. The story behind the studio that brought you Moonlight and It Comes At Night, as told by Barry Jenkins, Sofia Coppola, James Franco, Robert Pattinson, and the founders of A24 themselves. Fenkel: Look at The Witch. A24 is not like other entertainment companies. Read Next: Cate Blanchett Talks Tr and Fulfilling the Awards Prophecy of Winning an Oscar Every Nine Years, Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan Actor, Dies at 61, Reality TV Star Stephen Bear Jailed for 21 Months Over OnlyFans Sex Video, Jonathan Majors Confronts Those Terrible Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Reviews: It Doesnt Change How I See Myself, New Alien Movie Starts Filming in March, Reveals Cryptic Synopsis and Full Cast, Why Sylvester Stallone Is Not in 'Creed 3', Michelle Yeoh Says Hollywood Questioned If I Even Spoke English After 1997 Bond Film: I Didnt Work for Two Years Due to Stereotype, Woody Harrelson Slams COVID Set Protocols as 'Nonsense,' Urges Hollywood to 'Stop' Forcing 'Vaccination': Thats 'Not a Free Country', Idris Elba Says Backlash Over Not Calling Himself a Black Actor Is Stupid: Where Am I Denying My Blackness?, Ke Huy Quan Lost His Health Insurance Right After Filming Everything Everywhere All at Once: Nobody Else Wanted to Hire Me, Harry Potter Star Evanna Lynch: I Wish People Would Give J.K. Rowling More Grace and Listen to Her, Britain's $4 Billion Boss: ITV Chief Carolyn McCall Bets It All on Talent, 2023 Music Festivals: How to Buy Tickets to Coachella, Governors Ball, Lollapalooza and More.