A24 has bred superfans, dropped swag, and perfected a house style, developing a reputation as the film-industry version of an underground record label. It’s also teetering on the verge of self-parody. kn8 reports
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What’s notable about all of this is that A24 is not a filmmaker or an arts collective. It’s an independent film studio, and studios don’t usually have fans. People may love Atonement and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but as KJ Rothweiler, one-half of social-media gadfly duo the Ion Pack, told me, “No one’s rocking a Focus Features hoodie.”
A24 had the good fortune to emerge in the early ’10s, the moment social media was transitioning from a text culture to an image culture of Instagram posts, Reddit memes, and reaction GIFs. Over the course of the decade, it became easy for a film to morph into a social-media fetish object, especially if it featured meticulous art direction and cinematography, as so many A24 films did. More so than its competitors, A24 operated with one eye toward online hype.
Most important of these was the merch. From the beginning, A24 demonstrated an ability to transmute its sense of taste into physical objects: As head of acquisitions Noah Sacco told GQ, the studio wooed Spring Breakers producer Megan Ellison with a gift basket of custom-made gun-shaped bongs engraved with the film’s logo. As its standing grew, A24 merchandise became the company’s most visible means of brand extension.
Harrison used to work at the Metrograph, and he wrote a viral Baffler story about being laid off. He says the experience made him wonder if the internet idea of the “A24 superfan” had been fully separated from reality. “I had a job that was literally 50 paces from this intersection that the internet is obsessed with, and yet I could not sell a movie ticket to save my life,” he says.
“I don’t think I’m going to like a movie more if it’s A24, but I am more likely to see it, because I’ve already come to trust them.” —Jack FitzGerrell, marketer, Brooklyn
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