A24 is facing some trouble.
Today the standalone indie film company announced its closing their documentary division. Five talented people are out on the street.
A24 announced a $75 million investment last year from Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared, the same Jared who’s Donald Trump’s son in law. The same Jared who’s made billions off the Trump presidency.
But A24 is also a company that has incredibly branding and unique publicity for films that make no money. Their top ever box office is $84 million for the disliked “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Last year they released “Babygirl” and “Queer,” neither of which did very well. “Queer” doesn’t even appear on their list of top 25 films despite starring Daniel Craig. Another film absent from that list is Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid,” which was unwatchable. So they’re releasing Aster’s new film, “Eddington,” which was panned in Cannes.
I’m not sure anyone at A24 reads the scripts. Their number 25 film of all time is “Th Brutalist,” which made $16.2 million and cost at least twice that secure an Oscar for Adrien Brody.
Losing the documentary division is disappointing. They released some good films like the Michael J. Fox doc, “Still.” But they also gave us Steve McQueen’s four snooze fest about Amsterdam during WWII called “Occupied City.” Total box office was $152,934. Even people in the Netherlands skipped it.
