A24
A24 was founded in 2013 and was initially an indie film distribution company. After sustaining massive growth it has now cemented itself as both a staple in distribution and in production. As a company, it has remained in the critics' favor and garners much commercial success. Like most film companies the pandemic caused massive financial strain and insecurity; with theatres being shut down on the distribution side, and all projects being postponed due to safety restrictions on the production side. A24 managed to stay afloat using the following tactics.
As mentioned before A24 has had a lot of success in the industry. But the cause of its success is primarily through word of mouth. Because these are independent films it’s hard to have one cohesive marketing campaign especially compared to something like the MCU. Most of their good name comes from generating buzz, with long slow burning theatrical runs and advertisements through film festivals. They have an opposite approach to that streaming, which is constantly trying to have big bursts of engagement before releasing the next big craze. The pandemic created ideal circumstances for streamers and miserable ones for A24, so their strategy was to limit the damage as much as possible. A24 strictly limited its film releases only releasing cutting some releases entirely from their schedule. Compared to 2019 with 21 films and 2021 with 12, In 2020 only 3 films Boystate, First Cow, and On the Rocks were released. The first call debuted in theatres on March 6th and was subsequently pulled from theatres and released on VOD on July 10th, 2020. The two other films were released in a short-term plan with Apple TV. They delayed multiple releases, especially the ones that were more likely to be award contenders. Minari and Saint Maud were set to release in 2020 but their theatrical releases were delayed.
A24 was dealt a bad hand due to external circumstances but since they didn’t try and fight the wave and acknowledged that they were not going to be able to play to their strengths they were able to recover.
