On Oct. 3, A24 returns to the highlight with The Smashing Machine, a biopic about blended martial arts legend Mark Kerr’s rise and fall. Directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt, the movie already stirred awards chatter at its Venice premiere final week. Because the movie continues to command consideration and probably sweep award ceremonies quickly, A24’s press-shy founders will possible stay within the wings, letting the movies and expertise converse for themselves—a modus operandi that has lengthy set the studio aside from Hollywood norms.
Based in 2012, A24 has since grown right into a $3.5 billion enterprise spanning filmmaking, podcasts, retail, publishing and even theatre actual property. (Its first renovated off-Broadway venue opened this week.)
The title traces again to co-founder Daniel Katz, who had a flash of inspiration to start out a film studio whereas driving alongside Italy’s A24 freeway in 2012. “I all the time had desires of (beginning an organization),” Katz informed GQ in 2017. “And on some degree, truthfully, I used to be afraid to exit alone and attempt to make it work.”
The elusive founders
Katz, a numbers man who beforehand led the funding agency Guggenheim Companions’ movie finance arm, teamed up with David Fenkel, the co-founder of Oscilloscope Laboratories, a New York distributor and movie firm, and John Hodges, who led manufacturing and improvement at Large Seashore, the studio behind Little Miss Sunshine.
Katz and Fenkel nonetheless lead A24 immediately. Katz oversees undertaking green-lighting, expertise relations and strategic offers, whereas Fenkel manages financing and distribution. Hodges has since moved on and now serves as head of movie at Jax Media. Past the co-founders, A24’s management workforce immediately additionally consists of longtime executives like Ravi Nandan, who oversees tv, and Noah Sacco, the corporate’s head of movie.
Katz and Fenkel not often give interviews—over the corporate’s 12-year historical past, they’ve spoken publicly solely a handful of occasions, and nearly by no means on digital camera. After they do, it’s normally in long-form settings somewhat than fast press junkets.
From the outset, the plan was to reject Hollywood conference: no test-screened, committee-driven movies, no cookie-cutter campaigns, no assembly-line slop. As an alternative, A24 emphasised artistic freedom, producing acclaimed movies like Moonlight, Girl Chook, and Uncut Gems. Actor Robert Pattinson as soon as described the studio as “making a form of renaissance in filmmaking.”
A24 retains budgets lean and depends closely on artistic, digital-first promotion. What emerged was the thought of a studio that markets not simply films however vibes. Relatively than large advert blitzes, A24 crafted campaigns that turned every movie into an occasion, nearer in spirit to a Supreme drop than a standard Hollywood rollout.
At SXSW 2015, the studio pulled off one among its cheekiest stunts to advertise Ex Machina: festivalgoers swiping on Tinder encountered a profile for Alicia Vikander’s character, which redirected matches to the movie’s Instagram web page. The prank went viral and stays one of many studio’s cleverest advertising schemes.
In 2021, A24 made headlines once more with Zola, the primary characteristic movie tailored from a viral Twitter thread—the 148-tweet saga of a stripper’s chaotic street journey. Extra not too long ago, it winked at its personal mystique by stamping the A24 emblem on an condo door in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it second in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest.
Past the massive display screen
The A24 emblem, designed to evoke Artwork Deco fashion and previous Hollywood glamor, has grow to be a life-style image. Its merch line spans T-shirts, incense holders, sizzling sauce, seashore towels and even a $200 reproduction dollhouse from Hereditary. Simply this week, subscribers have been pitched a “Smashing Machine Actual American Hero Tee,” a recreation of Kerr’s 1999 Delight 7 shirt.
The corporate has additionally constructed a robust tv portfolio, co-producing sequence like HBO’s Euphoria and Netflix’s Beef. It was an early adopter of TikTok, favoring surreal, meme-driven clips over conventional status media.
Its publishing arm is equally influential: A24’s screenplay books, filled with behind-the-scenes essays, artwork and pictures, have grow to be collector’s gadgets.
All of this has fueled a run of dominance. In 2023, A24 turned the primary studio ever to brush all six main Academy Awards in a single night time, with Every thing All over the place All at As soon as and The Whale successful Finest Image, Finest Director, Finest Actress, Finest Actor, Finest Supporting Actor and Finest Supporting Actress. The studio now has 21 Oscars to its title.
Wanting forward, along with The Smashing Machine, the slate consists of Noah Baumbach’s TV adaptation of Andrew Ridker’s novel Hope and Alex Garland’s live-action tackle the Elden Ring online game.
