Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)’s HBO yesterday (Dec. 6) announced a multi-year output deal with A24 Films, the indie studio behind hit movies like Moonlight and The Whale, that includes exclusive access to A24’s film catalog on WBD-owned HBO, Max and Cinemax. The deal, whose dollar amount was not disclosed, once again puts A24’s reclusive founders in the spotlight.
An output deal allows a studio to sell its production to a buyer. A24 had a similar contract with Paramount’s Showtime network and Paramount+ streaming platform from 2019 to November 2022. A24’s HBO deal only includes films. The studio will still be able to develop television shows for other networks and streamers, including Showtime.
“I can’t wait to see A24’s slate of exquisitely curated and produced films premiere on HBO and Max,” Royce Battleman, WBD’s executive vice president of content acquisitions, said in a LinkedIn post yesterday. “These brands are such a natural fit when you think of the quality and creativity they represent.”
A24 already has a history of producing content for HBO and WBD’s streaming service Max, including titles like The Idol and the second season of Euphoria. The studio also has a licensing deal with WBD that gives HBO and Max exclusive access to its older movies, such as Moonlight and Eighth Grade.
A24 was founded in New York in 2012 by its co-CEOs David Fenkel and Daniel Katz along with film producer John Hodges. Hodges left the company in 2018 and joined Jax Media the next year where he still works as its head of film. Fenkel and Katz have quietly run the studio for the past decade. They rarely give media interviews or make public statements. (Neither of them commented on the new HBO deal.) And yet they are well known and respected in Hollywood for executing Academy Award–winning films like Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) and Moonlight (2016), the studio’s first original production.
Per the release from WBD, the new movies included in the output agreement at this point are Dicks: The Musical, Priscilla, Dream Scenario, The Zone of Interest, Stop Making Sense (2023), The Iron Claw, Love Lies Bleeding and Civil War. All of these movies have been released or will come out before the end of 2023.
