It’s a hen, it’s a aircraft, it’s an orange Marty Supreme blimp. In the event you’re on social media, likelihood is you’ve seen Timothée Chalamet and the buzzy rollout for A24’s upcoming Josh Safdie–directed sports activities drama through which the 29-year-old actor performs a younger man chasing fame on the planet of aggressive ping pong. The movie additionally stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler, The Creator, and Odessa A’zion. Since dropping its first trailer in August, A24 has steadily ramped up the advertising and marketing forward of the movie’s Christmas Day launch.
Since its founding in 2012, A24 has grown from a distinct segment indie label right into a $3.5 billion firm, beloved by younger cinephiles for its arthouse slate and distinctive merch. On the heart of its newest advertising and marketing marketing campaign is Chalamet himself, who instructions the identical Gen Z demographic the studio is focusing on. GQ editor Frazier Tharpe lately wrote that Chalamet is “redefining the rollout” and “making the movie-star promo cycle cool by making it bizarre.” (A24 hasn’t disclosed a particular finances for the Marty Supreme push.)
Chalamet has turn into a magnet for consideration exterior of his movies as properly. Throughout final yr’s NBA season, he went viral attending Knicks video games, successfully turning into an unofficial group cheerleader through the playoffs as he sat courtside with girlfriend Kylie Jenner, director Spike Lee and a rotating solid of celebrities. His likeness additionally helped spark the wave of celeb lookalike contests that swept by means of main cities, and he even has a devoted social fan membership dubbed “Membership Chalamet.”
One of the crucial viral moments of the marketing campaign got here from an 18-minute video through which A24 and Chalamet staged a spoofed Zoom assembly. In it, the actor performs an egomaniac pitching more and more absurd advertising and marketing concepts. The clip has since exploded throughout TikTok, Instagram Reels and X, with one second—Chalamet shouting “Schwap!” into the digicam—circulating broadly.
However not all of it was simply satire. A24 backed up the bit with precise orange blimps floating over Los Angeles. Disney pulled the same stunt earlier this yr, skywriting an enormous “4” to advertise Implausible 4: The First Steps.
Momentum actually accelerated in October on the 63rd New York Movie Competition, the place Safdie and Chalamet shocked audiences with a screening. Quickly after, Chalamet appeared in Instances Sq. to point out followers the primary half-hour of the movie, flanked by individuals in black tracksuits and outsized orange ping-pong-ball masks.
Then got here the Marty Supreme jackets, which went viral nearly instantly. Chalamet and celebrities like Child Cudi and Frank Ocean have been photographed carrying them in several colorways.
In a GQ piece, international vogue correspondent Samuel Hine puzzled whether or not the Marty Supreme jacket may be “the definitive garment of 2025.” Followers actually acted prefer it. Throughout a latest four-hour pop-up in New York’s SoHo, A24 offered the $250 jackets to crowds who waited for hours. Chalamet even stopped by to greet followers and hand out merch.
The jackets aren’t out there on A24’s on-line store, and it’s unclear in the event that they ever shall be. However the frenzy echoes the urgency of Supreme’s in-person drop mannequin—one other reminder of how successfully A24 faucets into hype tradition. (It’s unclear whether or not the marketing campaign is impressed by Supreme.)
With intelligent advertising and marketing stunts and Chalamet’s field workplace energy (his flip as Bob Dylan in Searchlight’s A Full Unknown introduced in $140.5 million worldwide, and the Dune franchise has earned over $1.14 billion globally), Marty Supreme is predicted to strike box-office gold this vacation season. It’s projected to earn between $7 million and $12 million domestically over the opening weekend, in step with earlier Christmas releases. Some consider it might even turn into A24’s highest-grossing title, although others doubt a interval sports activities drama will escape with fashionable audiences.
A24’s present prime performer, Every thing In every single place All at As soon as, grossed $145 million globally, fueled by phrase of mouth and its Finest Image win on the 2023 Oscars. Many awards watchers say Chalamet could possibly be a frontrunner for Finest Actor subsequent yr—momentum that might give Marty Supreme an extra increase.
