The movie industry is one of the most competitive environments in pop culture, a truly cutthroat contest between billion dollar corporations for ticket sales. 

A small handful of studios compete for the attention of the public every few months in an attempt to get people into theaters to watch their films. 

The challenge in this task is to capture the attention of an audience and make them genuinely interested in what you are selling them. We live in an economy that requires every industry to seek out the next big marketing idea in order to not fade into obscurity. 

In a movie market where multi-billion dollar studios are seeing huge losses at the box office and not receiving near the levels of critical acclaim they did a decade ago, a new player has entered the race. 

That player is A24 and they are the best movie studio going today. 

A24 was founded in 2012, long after the titans of the industry like Warner Bros. and Paramount they now compete with. 

A24 was originally started as a film distribution company. They would buy the rights to films of directors they enjoyed and then pay to have them promoted and shown in theaters. 

Eventually, they decided that they should make their own films. Their way of being different and enticing to film makers was to give them complete creative control of their work. They would finance the film and take the risk of it failing but would let the directors creative vision shine through. 

This led to notable names like Greta Gerwig, Jonah Hill and Bo Burnham getting their directorial debuts with “Lady Bird,” “Mid-90’s” and “Eighth Grade” respectively. 

This method certainly created a financial risk, but A24 countered this by spending no money on traditional marketing like other studios do. You will not see billboards of an A24 film, you will not see them doing promotional meals with restaurants or merch with toy companies.

However, you will hear about some viral stunt later found out to be for an A24 film. Whether it was actors standing completely still smiling at the camera at MLB games last year to promote their movie “Smile” or a Joaquin Phoenix LinkedIn profile for their latest film “Beau is Afraid,” you have most likely seen or been told about A24’s marketing. 

This mix of viral and word of mouth marketing alongside giving talented filmmakers the freedom to do whatever they want has yielded incredible results. A24 films have been nominated for over 50 Academy Awards and won 16. 

A24 has also been involved in TV productions for shows like “Beef,” “The Idol” and “Euphoria,” all of which have gotten massive attention and critical praise. Again, all without traditional marketing. 

Being an independent film studio, A24 holds their filmmakers and actors in high regard. They were even allowed to continue production on films during the WGA and SAG strikes this year because they agreed to the union’s terms immediately, when companies worth dozens of times more were unwilling to make those same compromises. 

In a world where studios rely more and more on established brands and name recognition, A24 relies on good scripts and original concepts brought to fruition by talented people. 

It may seem simple, but when you take a look around the movie industry, A24 are truly the only ones doing it right. 

Categories: Arts & Entertainment