Wed be like, Heavey, just make sure hes alive and you can get him to communicate.. I didnt think it was terrible. Katz: I think if you had asked us beforehand, we would have said, you know, La La Lands gonna win. Harmony Korine (director, Spring Breakers): They have balls. Hodges previously served as head of production and development at Big Beach Films and exec produced "Our Idiot Brother" and "Safety Not Guaranteed.". That was just acting! It was not like being in a cinema. We tried to get the Union Square movie theaterwe didnt have a theatrical booking yet. Daniel Katz (co-founder, A24): We used to always talk about Oh, theres gotta be a better way.. [10] The company's first theatrical release was Roman Coppola's A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, which had a limited release. Discover Johnny Hodges's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. "I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Jax,". 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As one of the founding members of the New York-based company, Hodges played a key role. Beyer: It was all about this tension between, like, trying to legitimize ourselves as a real company that can handle working with, like, big. Like, there was one that was like the shotit was [Francos character] Alien with the two girls, and hes holding machine guns or something. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Katz: People say, Oh, Barry, why didnt you bring us Moonlight?As if that was the most obvious Best Picture! 2023 THE TRACKING BOARD. I dont think that switch in psychology is supposed to happen that dramatically, or that abruptly. Colin Farrell (actor, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer): They have such a great eye for these small little films and rich and unique stories that may have not found it to the big screen if it wasnt for them. Thus far, A24 hasnt made any of the movies its released, but its made all of them A24 movies. Really? I still think that its morally questionable, but now I realize that the publicity people do stuff, and that stuff is real.. Katz formerly led the film finance group at Guggenheim Partners, Fenkel was the president, co-founder and partner at Oscilloscope, and Hodges served as Head of Production and Development at Big Beach. I want to be A24, he said. Fenkel: We knew we were releasing the movie. Villeneuve: If my memorys good, I was amongst their, not their first movies, but they were a young company at the time. Aizenberg: I remember that Sunday we all got on the phone and were like, Were going over a thousand screens.. It could be the CEO or an intern.. When your business model is predicated on treating each movie like an event, how do you get bigger without changing who you are? Thats completely nuts. Since then his contributions to growing the company have been invaluable and we cant wait to see what he does next., Hodges said in a statement, I am incredibly proud of the company we created and of the amazing team at A24 that has been integral to its success. Fenkel: So hes booking, what, fifteen hundred screens? I was like, Fuck yeah!, Sacco: I think its inspiring and motivating to a younger generation: Oh, that movie cost this, and it did this. Katz: We have a better relationship with him now. I think I made out with my wife in front of people. Aizenberg: There was a week in January where we dropped the trailer of Spring Breakers. James Franco (actor, Spring Breakers, The Adderall Diaries): This is one of the things theyre great at: taking something small and delicate and giving it the kind of support that other people cant. And David cannot stop perspiring. So whos to say that, you know, A24 wont become Warner Brothers five years from now? It was also that A24 was releasing these films not with a sigh and a shrug, but with panache, style, and humor: bright neon colors, guerrilla marketing tactics, and in the case of James Francos Britney Spears-loving gangster character from Spring Breakers, an actual Oscar campaign. Over the past six years I have been fortunate to work with a diverse group of talented storytellers across film and TV and look forward to continuing those collaborations in my future endeavors, added Hodges. But I remember vividly that they had chosen some specific movies, one of which was Under the Skin. Information. Denis Villeneuve (director, Enemy): I never saw them as businessmen. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter, As one of the founding members of the New York-based company, Hodges played a key role in putting A24 on the map, culminating with last year's best picture winner, 'Moonlight.'. Only Lovers Left Alive drips with style, wisdom and ironic humor as Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton play hip, immortal layabouts. in the past 3 years a24 has managed to make from 90 - 110 million at the yearly box office. A mile and a half. So we ran there. I just started talking. For a medium-size film to succeed without a marketing blitz twice the size of its production budget, its not enough for it to be goodit has to have a hook. We werent a fully formed company yet. A24 has only managed to turn each of its main-slate films into an event because the companys been ruthless and visionary when it comes to determining the difference. Theyre one of the few companies that have shown that indie films can still be viable. Theyre super-smart people. Ask for forgiveness. I think it just showed that we cared about these movies so much. We sit in. It made me crack up. Since then his contributions to growing the company have been invaluable and we cant wait to see what he does next, said A24 in a statement. Then he had this very high-tech, nuanced process, which was printing out a spreadsheet, and then when he would book a theater, he would write it down on the spreadsheet, and then when the spreadsheet was full, hed push it over from his desk to my desk. Scott didnt say anything. We werent doing anything like that. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. It was, like, every time another person walked out, I was like, Oh, there goes another one!, Sacco: All my friends and family, they kept asking about this new company. Thats the chief message of an A24 campaign, really, from elegant design to sharp social media to clever co-branding choices: This is a company that gets it. An A24 film has an affinity for subverting a celebritys established persona. And then, in 08, the bubble burst, and the economic downturn probably had a little bit of impact. A24 is an American independent entertainment company founded on August 20, 2012, by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges and based in New York City. [25], On November 13, 2019, A24 entered into a premium cable television broadcast deal with Showtime Networks, covering all film releases through November 1, 2022. The optimistic way to view this situation is that A24 is getting much better at buying good movies for its DirecTV deal, rather than filler like Barely Lethal. Katz: Tusk, we were like, oh, Kevin Smith! Please! Other companies wanted to do stuff with it. [19], In January 2017, the company acquired the United States and Chinese distribution rights for their first foreign language film, Menashe. Most importantly, an A24 film is a happening. This story appears in the summer issue of GQ Style. And although it describes itself as Midnight Madness, the film didnt start until close to one oclock in the morning. How A24 is Disrupting Hollywood. Other similarly sized outfits tend to flood the flooded marketplace with a steady barrage of quality independent and foreign fare in a way that can feel indiscriminate: Send the DCPs to Film Forum and let God sort em out. You know, theyre big-time. All Rights Reserved. Beyer: And respect them and treat them the way they would by any other company. In between, A24 went from being a tiny, disorganized room of eight or so people to being the place where big stars like Robert Pattinson and Scarlett Johansson go to make small, strange movies, and auteurs like Jonathan Glazer and Denis Villeneuve go to make deeply personal films unmolested by studio notes or clueless executives. The fact theyre vampires might just be an excuse for them to wear sunglasses indoors. Scarlett Johansson gives the most daring performance of her career in Jonathan Glazers surreal, experimental film. The first: Barry Jenkins Moonlight, which chronicles a gay mans coming of age across three stages of his life in war on drugsera Miami. Lets go wide! The movie was Spring Breakers, it played like a Kesha music video as directed by Terrence Malick on MDMA, and it debuted to the highest per-screen average of any film released that year to date. Like, you believe in something, you fall in love with it, and then you work for three months on trying to make it work. Fellow founding partners Daniel Katz and David Fenkel will continue to oversee the NYC-based indie studio, which has seen great success with Oscar-winning films such as Room, Ex Machina and last years surprise Best Picture winner Moonlight.. She looked great. It was another way of getting the message out there. John Heavey (distribution, A24): Especially the first two years, we fell in love with every movie. Surely theyve learned by now that theres a ceiling for arthouse films these days. Igoe: That morning was crazy. In the fall of 2012, A24 arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival with a plan to acquire several movies. [11][12], In September 2013, A24 entered a $40 million deal with DirecTV Cinema, where DirecTV Cinema would offer day-and-date releases 30 days prior to a theatrical release by A24; Enemy was the first film to be distributed under the deal. See what happens.. John Hodges (co-founder and co-head of TV, . Losing a movieI wanted to jump off a bridge. You walk through that office, and there arent a lot of people that look like theyre from Liberty City, Miami. BREAKING: John Hodges, one of the founding members of A24, has announced his departure from the production and distribution studio to focus on future opportunities. It wasnt just that, for a new distribution company, it seemed to have a level of taste and an instinct for cool that is atypical in Hollywood. Put it on screens. The company is behind instant fan favorites like Uncut Gems, Ladybird, The Lighthouse, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, noted A24. Sacco: I used to think seeing people faint was what happened in movies. Sacco: Frances Ha was the first heartbreak. I Just Raised The Oscar At Them. Its exciting. Katz: I always had dreams of [starting a company]. When we started, we wanted it to be about the films and filmmakers, not us, Katz told the Hollywood Reporter at the end of 2013, and that culture remains evident in all aspects of their business. Yes, Scream VI Marketing Is Behind the Creepy Ghostface Sightings Causing Scares Across the U.S. David Oyelowo, Taylor Sheridan's 'Bass Reeves' Series at Paramount+ Casts King Richard Star Demi Singleton (EXCLUSIVE), Star Trek: Discovery to End With Season 5, Paramount+ Pushes Premiere to 2024. Katz: Yeah! When an A24 acquisitions exec pitched the story to me, excitedly laying out the plot in broad but heartbreaking strokes, he asked if it sounded like an A24 film. John Hodges (co-founder and co-head of TV, A24): It was one of those conversations where it was always like, How would we do it differently? And it was usually fueled by beer and things scribbled down on napkins and a lot of bravado. Thats not a go-wide movie. junio 12, 2022. cottage for sale in timmins on . [9], The company began its distribution of films in 2013. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. There has been speculation for the past six months that the company is for sale. Apply Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon and save 25% Off your entire purchase, Target Circle: up to 50% Off with Target promo code, Save 25% on your purchase of Spring Styles with Asos Coupon, Michael Kors Promo Code: sign up for KORSVIP + Get 10% Off on First Order, 2023 Cond Nast. Pattinson: Theyre definitely the place to be now. Theirs is a potent brand that Ive admired for a long time, and their reputation as innovative partners to talent is second to none.. The deal, intended to grant A24 the capital it needed to grow and DirecTV some much-needed cultural cachet, stipulated that the two companies would jointly acquire new titles, and that those titles would be eligible to premiere on DirecTVs on-demand platform 30 days prior to a theatrical release. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Her film The Invitation" plays on agitation and insecurities between a group of old friends and some suspicious strangers at a lavish dinner party. The Oscar-nominated actor gives us his all-time favorites of film. Daniel Katz and David Fenkel will continue to oversee the NYC-based indie. Correction, Sept. 30, 2015:This article originally contained a photo of John Hodges, a film producer, rather than John Hodges, co-founder of A24. So, how much is Johnny Hodges . I remember the thing that got him was like, Listen. Whether thats old white people in the Academy, or people all over the country, or frankly the rest of the world. The second title was Life After Beth, the domestic theatrical haul of which was a paltry $88,273. That company and the old Miramax and Fox Searchlight had a real brand and a hold on their audience. Katz: Some of it was probably misplaced, dont you agree? I dont think it was related to her professional career. Production Company. He later left A24 on March 2018 to focus on future opportunities. John. I was thrilledwhen the news broke that A24 had acquired the domestic rights, and then gutted to learn that it was part of the DirecTV pact. a24. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, noted A24 in a statement. The world opened itself up. And it satisfied something they werent getting. Fenkel: I just cannot stop. Its such a really fucking well-executed movie. We get credit for it even when we have nothing to do with it. Sasha Lane (actress, American Honey): They were like, You guys are who you are and were not going to change that. No one had to be perfected for anything. And they did. Not necessarily, like, to win Best Picture and ten Oscar nominations. Dede Gardner (producer, Plan B, Moonlight): When we and Barry said it was absolutely critical that we shoot in Miami, they said, Of course it is. And you know, many, many others wouldve said, Well, you can get the rebate if you go to Atlanta. But anyone whos read it knows that Liberty Square and that particular light and that particular culture was a character. And then its like on the biggest stage, I didnt thank anybody! TV production powerhouse Jax Media is expanding into film and tapped John Hodges, one of the founding partners of A24, as its new head of film. Katz: By the way, a thousand times out of a thousand, youre wrong. Everybody wants to be A24. Across 96 films released at the time of this article, the average Production Budget on each film rounds out to a cool $6 million, with the Box Office revenue across the 96 films adding up to $798 million. I think we lost control. The things about it that didnt were what made me most excited, both for Moonlight and the future of a company thats confident enough in its sense of self to stretch toward something new. When your audience does the work for you. The company also announced that they would also finance and develop pilots. But we said, Lets invest in it. Theres a difference. But I feel that the fact that it was their first filmthere was a lot of idealism around the process. Fenkel: I think we had to sell them on, like, Hey, were gonna push this thing.. Jenkins: We shot for five weeks, and they came down during the first week. And yeah, I just think that it takesit doesnt happen that often that a new studio starts. 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Rowling More Grace and Listen to Her, Britain's $4 Billion Boss: ITV Chief Carolyn McCall Bets It All on Talent, 2023 Music Festivals: How to Buy Tickets to Coachella, Governors Ball, Lollapalooza and More. And the interns are running around trying to find a glassblower. Katz: We did great movies. Take its efforts on Spring Breakers, for example. In 2016, A24 expanded into original production with Moonlight. It also put out some of its weirder and most singular movies to date: Trey Edward Shultss micro-budget family drama Krisha; Swiss Army Man, in which Daniel Radcliffe plays a corpse; and Yorgos Lanthimoss romantic tragedy, The Lobster. In February, Robert Eggerss The Witch, which A24 bought at Sundance for one million dollars, made $40 million and became the companys highest grossing film to date (Moonlight has since surpassed it). Harvey Weinstein (via email): A24 is a great company. Sacco: And people on planet Earth, you know, they go see movies that they need to want to see or hear about. The latest is Hereditary, the debut film of Ari Aster that premiered at Sundance and is quickly earning a reputation as one of the scariest movies ever. Were putting together a gift basket of glass guns and a gift basket with munchies. I think when we started [2016], it was another, like, what Id consider a building year. David Fenkel (co-founder, A24): We find movies [for which] our perspective, our system, our people, can act to make it something special. The gross guysand hes like, All right. There was nothing bad-spirited about it. Next year theyll re-team with While Were Young director Noah Baumbach on his brilliant doc about Brian De Palma, distribute one of the best horror films since The Shining, and release the first of the films theyve financed themselves. Fenkel: Id love to say from the first cut we knew. Starting off moderately in 2013 with A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, the company's growth started with the release of Spring Breakers later that year. But the back end was so crazy. Jenkins: They were like, Look. They had faith that people would continue to show up. Description. [laughs] I remember I had to have a conversation with Alicia about it, where she was saying, What the hell? and I was saying, I dont know. raised the Oscar at them. Im glad it all worked out. At the same time, we get a call saying that Selena and Ashley [Benson], their hair and makeup team hadnt gone on the private jet we had got for them, because they didnt think it was big enough or secure enough. A24 has an estimated net worth of about $1.89 million. The news of Hodges exit was abrupt, but one source said the move has been in the works for some time. We literally didnt know what to do. Its DirecTV/A24 release grossed $229,094 and never played on more than 54 screens. He also produced . A24 co-founder John Hodges is exiting the indie companyto focus on future opportunities, he and the company jointly announced on Monday. And we put in Oscar statues in his hands. There was this weird time. The bottom line is that there were 677 new releases in 2013, and that number is only getting bigger. It was like Broadcast News. Wouldnt call us back. Other indie labels, like Megan Ellisons Annapurna Pictures (which co-produced Spring Breakers), tend to go in the other direction, releasing a minuscule handful of movies into the currents of Oscar season in the hopes that the waters will carry them toward a crowd. All rights reserved. Gif excerpt from the film The End of the Tour via A24 Films. And so with [The Rover], they took that into account, and instead of blowing loads of money, [they did] more targeted marketing and also really sophisticated online campaigns and stuff. A24 thinks hard about the landscape of distribution, and they think hard about the models, and the models are changing. Steven Soderbergh retired. Spike Lee turned to Kickstarter. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. Logo by GrandArmy Photos via A24. In 2012, Fenkel, Hodges, and Katz left their jobsat Oscilloscope, Big Beach, and Guggenheim Partners, respectivelyto start A24. Also Read: Sundance, SXSW Comedy 'Never Goin' Back' Sells to A24, John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, the studio said in a statement. I think what theyve understood is theres a sufficient number of people out there who want more challenging or different material. Fenkel: More than 50 percent chance La La Land. It is currently unknown if this slate of films will have a theatrical release or be exclusive to Apple's Apple TV+ streaming service. Jenkins: What theyre doing is so fluid and free-form that two years from now, it could be quite different than it was two years ago. A24, originally a small independent movie distributor, has quickly transformed into one of the most respected and successful names in cinema production. Sacco: I show up at the airport. Ali Herting (acquisitions and development, A24): We were never gonna get Place Beyond the Pines. TV production powerhouse Jax Media is expanding into film and tapped John Hodges, one of the founding partners of A24, as its new head of film. They didnt have a ton of movies, you know? We wish Hodges the best of luck with his next endeavor, since the indie landscape has certainly benefited from his contributions. Mr Katz had worked in film financing at Guggenheim Partners, and . Barry Jenkins (director, Moonlight): A24s the kind of company where they say, Yeah, they dont need to know what its about. Johnny Hodges Net Worth. Fenkel: We had a meeting. So I just called the guy. A vital piece of work far too delicately perverse to have sustained a theatrical run, it was the ideal choice to launch the program. Beyer: There were like a few ads that we made. For a truly great film like this, being excluded from the conversation into which A24 works so hard to insinuate its main slate can feel like a fate worse than Harvey Weinstein. A24 took Ex Machina to the 2015 South by Southwest festival and built a Tinder chatbot with the face of Alicia Vikander to help promote the film. The best scares always come from unexpected places. Saulnier expertly contains conflict, depth and gore within small confines. A24 will. And someone was like, Where did those images come from? And I was like, Google? Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. Drinking champagne at nine in the morning. I just trust, you know, Drag City or Merge or SST or Dischord. And, like, within two blocks, I have to stop. Karyn Kusama is a rapidly rising female director, and for good reason. The companys expansion into film is a natural progression as the company continues to produce scripted and non-scripted television as well as stand-up comedy specials. A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. Hollywood is run by accountants at this point. By the end of its opening weekend, it had raked in more money than all of Korines other films combined. We took a risk on the movie, and it fucking paid off, so why should we cut down our back end? No one had a voice. We all go nuts for a few minutes, and then were all like, Okay, what do we do?. Franco: I remember the South by Southwest festival, the screeningit was like a rock concert. Contrast that with its embrace of every grimy detail of demented dubstep nightmare Spring Breakers, for which the company went so far as to mount a sincere consider this sh*t awards campaign for James Franco. You know what? Dont get left behind. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Daniel Radcliffe (actor, Swiss Army Man): Ive had experiences on films in the past where they get bought by somebody who sees something in it that they like, which is nice, but it also happens to be notand is sometimes antithetical towhat the people who made the film wanted it to be. Beyer: I remember when we had Room, like, six months after Ex Machina or something, Fenkel was like, Whats the Tinder for Room? And I was like, No, no! John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, A24 noted. (Joy, Annapurnas only 2015 title, arrives in theaters on Christmas Day.). I legitimately watched people almost pass out. No one cared about our language or our clothes. Spring Breakers had a whole Oscar campaign: Consider This Shit.Zoe Beyer. (For context, the Spring Breakers Facebook page has 1.1 million likes, while that for Fox Searchlights Best Picture-winning Birdman has only 289,000.) Where its like: Im in. Other 2013 theatrical releases included Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa, Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, and James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now. So I think they were hoping, and discovering, that they might be able to do that with The Witch. Sacco: Youre not like, Oh, we got a Best Picture winner! Youre just like, Oh, we got a great movie.. None Of Us Thanked Them. Ravi Nandan (co-head of TV, A24): Paramount Vantage, which had released, like, There Will Be Blood and a bunch of other movies, was [folded into] Paramount. Judging by the fact that the trailer racked up more than 3 million views in its first week online, the crowds are ready with their pitchforks. The initial agreement covered 12 films, the first of which was Denis Villeneuves jaundiced doppelgnger freakout, Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Zoe Beyer (marketing, A24): Spring Breakers had a whole Oscar campaign. Theres aesthetic and political values to the people behind the company. More recently, it expanded from being an acquisitions-only distributor to producing home-grown fare as well as branching into TV. And even this public face represents the companys nonhierarchical structure: Thats only funny, Beyer once observed, because youre not quite sure whos saying it. I think theatrical will always be there, but most of my biggest experiences of cinema have been in front of a TVno one was screening Fellini films in Ireland when I was 19 or 20.. Company Details: (Blindsided teens, many of whom had been intrigued at the thought of seeing former Disney star Selena Gomez in a more mature performance, assailed the Internet with complaints that they had paid to see the Worst Movie Ever Made.)