[COLUMN] With Death Stranding, The Rock, and Civil War, A24 is Levelling Up | by Darren Mooney (Patreon)

It has been a big week for independent studio A24.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would be starring in The Smashing Machine, a movie written and directed by Benny Safdie. That same day, they released a trailer for Civil War, a new movie from writer and director Alex Garland that will be opening in a prime IMAX slot in April 2024. On Thursday, it was confirmed that the studio was working with gaming legend Hideo Kojima on an adaptation of Death Stranding as a live action feature film.

The past year has been busy for the studio. The week before last, it was announced that A24 had signed a lucrative deal to provide more than 100 films to HBO, Max and Cinemax. Although the studio has produced television shows in the past, including Ramy and Euphoria, it recently launched The Curse, starring Oscar-winner Emma Stone. The studio swept this year’s Oscars with Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Whale, winning nine statues, including all four acting trophies.

There is a sense that something is happening involving A24 that doesn’t often happen in Hollywood. An independent studio is levelling up, trying to break into the big leagues. It’s a bold movie, but it speaks to the remarkable success of the young production house. A24 was only founded in August 2012, and has made tremendous inroads into Hollywood in that decade-and-change. Critically and commercially, A24 has punched significantly above its weight.

Commercially, A24 has succeeded in the way that many of the smaller studios do. It has kept budgets under control and invested in genre films that have pre-existing audiences. The year, for example, Talk to Me was a breakout success for the studio despite earning under $100m, because it cost less than $4.5m to make. Everything Everywhere All At Once was a blockbuster for the studio despite earning only $143m, because it was responsibly budgeted between $14.3m and $25m.

Creatively, because of these low budgets, the studio has been able to take risks with filmmakers who have distinct styles and aesthetics. At a time when the major studios seemed to be backing away from auteurs, A24 embraced filmmakers like Harmony Korine, Sofia Coppola, Denis Villeneuve, Jonathan Glazer, Steven Knight, J.C. Chando, Noah Baumbach, Alex Garland, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold, Barry Jenkins, Ben Wheatley, David Lowery, the Sadfies, Sean Baker, Paul Schrader and more.

The studio has also taken chances on fresh talent. It produced directorial debuts for talent as diverse as Robert Eggers, Oz Perkins, Ari Aster, Bo Burnham, Rose Glass, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and Jonah Hill. It also produced Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig’s first solo credit as director. These directors and their films have had a massive influence on the cinematic landscape over the past decade, often working with bigger studios on even bigger movies. Without A24, Barbie would look very different.

More broadly, the studio has contributed to the reshaping of the conversation around the horror genre. The term “elevated horror” is somewhat loaded, and perhaps unfairly dismissive of the genre’s rich and diverse history. Many of the horror movies classified as “elevated” can trace their roots back at least as far as beloved horror classics like Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, or even William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.

Still, the past decade has seen a palpable shift in the kinds of horror films being produced and generating attention. Often originating outside the bigger studios, these horror movies are riskier and stranger than a lot of the more mainstream horrors of the earlier 21st century, a clear break from the dominant cycles of horror remakes, found footage and torture porn. These more prestigious, polished and abstract horror films tended to come from indie studios like Blumhouse, A24, and Neon.

While the influence of this class of horror film might be overstated, they still dominate the cultural conversation. A24 produced both The VVitch and Hereditary, two films that sparked debates about what critics and audiences wanted from the genre, with critics coining terms like “post-horror.” At a time when the mid-budget movie was all but disappearing from cinemas, A24 were able to blur the boundaries between arthouse hit and cultural touchstone. This is no small feat, even setting aside the tumultuous state of the industry.

While films like those boosted the stock of directors like Robert Eggers and Ari Aster, they also helped A24 to build a distinct brand. Even if those movies didn’t set the box office on fire, they were talked about and they were respected. A24 leveraged this cultural cachet. Observers noted how the studio turned itself into a lifestyle brand or “a vibe”, attracting its own dedicated fanbase and launching their own range of merchandise. The studio developed a reputation – fairly or not – for attracting “hipster film bros.”

As easy as it is to reduce A24 to a set of clichés, the company has accomplished something genuinely remarkable at a time when the major studios seem to be in a state of constant chaos. In fact, one of the reasons why it has such an impressive upcoming slate is because it was willing to sign waivers with SAG-AFTRA, exempting them from this year’s massive labor strikes. The major studios don’t have much to release in early 2024, so Civil War’s IMAX release is perfectly positioned.

These recent announcements represent a desire to level up to the big leagues. Last year, A24 scored a sizable $225m equity investment and an impressive $2.5bn valuation as part of a plan to expand its distribution and production operations. They also emerged as the largest studio outside “the big six” – Universal, Disney, Paramount, Warners, Sony and 20th Century Pictures (formerly Fox). A24’s market share is only 1.53%, but that makes them the biggest “mini major” studio.

Of course, it’s hard to break into that bigger market. Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg learned this the hard way with DreamWorks, a company initially intended to compete with the major studios, only to end up bouncing around partnerships with Disney, Paramount and Universal. It is notable that the only recent arrivals to truly compete with the major studios – Netflix, Amazon and Apple – did so by completely upending the larger business and fundamentally changing the rules of the game.

Smaller studios trying to make that transition generally depend on franchises and brands to support them. For years, Lionsgate was known for producing cheap horror movies like the Saw franchise. However, it was able to leverage the Twilight, Hunger Games and John Wick franchises to more mainstream brand recognition. A24 doesn’t really have that sort of library. X and Talk to Me are the studio’s first movies to produce prequels and sequels, but they are hardly iconic brands unto themselves.

All of this seems incredibly precarious at a time where it seems like the industry can’t even support the existing major studios. Warner Bros. has been bounced around a lot in recent years, between AT&T and Discovery. Bob Iger is working to streamline Disney, possibly even selling off its linear networks. Disney bought Fox in March 2019. Shari Redstone is reportedly considering selling Paramount after years of fighting to maintain control of the company.

Still, however this ultimately plays out, there is cause for excitement. The success of The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Five Nights at Freddy’s suggests that the future of media involves a lot of video game adaptations, so a partnership between A24 and Hideo Kojima is compelling. Dwayne Johnson has spent the past few years adrift in a sea of uninspired franchise films, so it’s reassuring to see him take a big swing on something more like Southland Tales or Pain and Gain.

Alex Garland is one of the most interesting and ambitious writers and directors working today. Dredd is one of the best comic book movies ever produced. His collaborations with Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later and Sunshine, are two of the best genre films of this young century. Garland’s work with A24 has been consistently ambitious and effective, and so it’s great to see him afforded a larger canvas and platform. Given its premise, Civil War could become a buzzy breakout.

A24 has had a remarkable first decade. It has generated a unique identity by prioritizing the art and craft of filmmaking, taking chances on bold new filmmakers at reasonable budgets. It has slowly and steadily built a reputation for quality. Even if its films don’t consistently top the box office, they shift the conversation. A24 has spent years punching above its weight class, eschewing the franchise playbook that defines modern Hollywood. It’s an almost naïve approach: just make good product.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to a roll of the dice. There’s no guarantee that these bets will pay off. Still, it’s hard not to root for a studio putting its money where its mouth is, doubling down on an approach that values artists over formula. Facing into 2024, A24 is faced with a choice of going big or going home, and it has decided it’s not going home empty-handed.