By: Damanpreet Lobana '25
Photo Courtesy of Film Stories
Independent Movie Productions, more popularly known as ‘Indie Movies’, have consistently faced challenges to spread awareness of their productions and secure theaters to exhibit their films. The giant production companies such as Disney, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers often spend significant resources on mass marketing and usually have pre-arranged deals with reputable theatre chains like AMC and Cinemark. However, indie movies generally showcase themselves in various film festivals from around the world, hoping to attract distributors who could connect them to audiences through securing theatres.
The origins of A24 began with being such a distributor, readily buying the distribution rights of independent productions. They were able to identify films that had distinct and vibey qualities, then subjected them to cheaper, viral forms of marketing. This can be showcased by their first distribution showcase of Spring Breakers. While the movie might have suffered from poor reviews, it’s extremely ‘meme-able’ content for social media and mesmerizing color schemes was able to generate word-of-mouth amongst people that it became a success. For their movie Ex Machina, they were able to create a Tinder profile of the female protagonist to attract men towards watching their films. From there, the company took off, distributing the likes of The Spectacular Now and Room, the latter of which would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Actress.
However, the turning point of the company came when it decided to undertake its own project, Moonlight, which completely changed the purpose and vision of their business. Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight, only had one independent production in 2008. They were able to give him and other filmmakers an unprecedented amount of creative freedom while creating a thematic lighting scheme that solidified their brand of movies. Ari Aster (Hereditary and Midsommar), Daniel Kwan (Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere all at Once), Robert Eggers (The Northman and The Lighthouse) are some of the examples of famous filmmakers that have utilized this platform. They have even expanded towards television, with the production hits Euphoria and Beef airing on HBO and Netflix respectively. They have now started to even capitalize their brand, selling merchandise involving limited edition drops and collaboration with online ceramics, things that are generally associated with the fashion industry, which created large fanbases that want to be associated with their movie production style.
Before we declare that the production company has got the Midas touch, they are also responsible for making bad quality films like every other studio. Here it is also interesting to note how they deal with these movies. By striking deals with DirectTV and Apple TV, A24 can ensure that movies that are suffering from poor performance can automatically be shifted towards streaming platforms. They are also able to quickly pull the plug on their marketing by clamping down on the mentions of the film on social media platforms. These strategies have ensured that A24 can be highlighted for their successes whilst having the incentive to produce more projects. In fact, in the last year alone, A24 was able to release 20 productions, which were greater than the releases sent out by the production companies that we talked about earlier.
With the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike entering its fifth month, A24 has been given the clearance for their projects Mother Mary and Death of a Unicorn, making it another opportunity to cement their existence as the superior production company.
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