The deepest library in Hollywood. The Wizard of Oz , Casablanca , Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter , DC , South Park , CNN , HGTV .
Cool. That’s the asset. Millennial and Gen Z audiences have been trained to distrust corporate product. A24 sells the opposite: risk, weirdness, and a specific visual texture (pastels, dread, silence).
The studios that thrived in 2024—Disney (with Inside Out 2 ), Universal (with Oppenheimer and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ), Sony (with Spider-Verse )—were the ones that remembered the secret: Epilogue: The Next Frontier As you read this, the next war is already brewing. Apple spent $500 million on Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon , realizing that prestige is the only thing its brand lacks. Amazon’s Fallout series became a massive hit, proving that video game adaptations can be art. And Tik-Tok has become a de facto studio, turning 60-second clips into full-length film deals (see: Anyone But You , which sold its entire run on a single kissing clip). The deepest library in Hollywood
260 million subscribers and a recommendation algorithm that knows you better than your spouse. Netflix produces more original content in a month (roughly 50+ new titles) than MGM produced in its entire golden age.
By J. Samuels
Popularity in the streaming era is not about quality. It is about completion rate . The most popular show is not the best show; it’s the show that makes you hit “Next Episode” at 2 AM. Part III: The Auteur’s Last Stand (A24) Amid the franchises and algorithms, a tiny independent studio with a hipster logo became the most unlikely powerhouse. A24, founded in 2012, has no superheroes, no sequels (except one: Talk 2 Me ), and no theme parks. Yet it has won 19 Academy Awards, including Best Picture for Everything Everywhere All at Once .
Intellectual Property (IP) fortress. Disney owns Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, and National Geographic. Its vault is the Louvre of childhood. That’s the asset
The "pipeline model." In 2023-2024, Disney released Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 , The Little Mermaid (live-action), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , Wish , and Inside Out 2 . Notice a pattern? Zero original, non-franchise live-action dramas. Every release is a pre-sold emotional mortgage.
The only guarantee? Next summer, a movie you’ve never heard of will make a billion dollars. And a $300 million sequel will die. And some kid on a couch will watch both on their phone, thumb hovering over the 10-second skip button, the new god of a very old business. The studios that thrived in 2024—Disney (with Inside
But here is the twist: It’s working. Sort of.