A new report indicates that beloved indie studio A24 may be looking for big changes.
Despite nearly 50 Oscar nominations and more than a dozen wins, A24 wants to get even bigger. Typically, the studio is known for distributing smaller indie films such as “The Florida Project,” “Moonlight” and “Eighth Grade.”
Get big
The Wrap reports that A24 is considering acquiring “action films and major IPs” to help “expand into more commercial films.”
While A24 doesn’t have a specific genre, they helped launch the careers of the Safdie brothers, Bo Burnham, Ari Aster, Alex Garland and Greta Gerwig.
It was their brand to make films that studios like Disney, Universal, Warner Bros and others no longer made. Or at least don’t get ahead in marketing.
Last year was perhaps the most popular year for A24. Their film Everywhere At Once became the studio’s highest-grossing film ever, surpassing Hereditary ($81 million) with $111 million. The film appealed to the masses, a rarity for the studio, and received 11 Oscar nominations, including seven. Including Ke Hai Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis received their first Oscars and a victory in the Best Picture category. This was the sweetest story of the year.
And it’s not that A24 wasn’t “mainstream” at times. Hereditary was a horror film that ended up making over $80 million. Was it more artistic than your average horror? Yes, but it still caught the attention of moviegoers. The coming-of-age film Lady Bird also earned more than $80 million, appealing to a wide audience (it helped that it starred Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet).
This year they had another hit – “Talk to Me.” The Australian horror film is getting a sequel, grossing over $68 million.
This news may spook A24 supporters. Let’s wait to see how this all plays out before we jump into the studio. There were rumors that they were hunting for the rights to the Halloween series. It remains to be seen whether they continue to race.