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NEON Rated, LLC, doing business as Neon (stylized in all caps), is an American independent film production and distribution company founded in 2017 by CEO Tom Quinn and Tim League, who also was the co-founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain.[1] As of 2019, League is no longer involved with daily operations for the company.[6]
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| Neon | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Film industry |
| Founded | January 13, 2017[1] |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
Number of employees | 52 (as of September 2024)[3] |
| Parent | 30West[4] |
| Divisions |
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| Website | neonrated |
Its first film, Colossal, was released on April 7, 2017.[7] The company is best known for distributing such notable films as I, Tonya (2017), Three Identical Strangers (2018), Apollo 11 (2019), Parasite (2019), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Palm Springs (2020), Possessor (2020), She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Flee (2021), Spencer (2021), The Worst Person in the World (2021), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), Fire of Love (2022), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), Ferrari (2023), How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023), Anora (2024), Longlegs (2024), and The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024).[8][9][10][11][12][13]
Parasite went on to become Neon's highest-grossing film at the worldwide box office with $262 million and the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in February 2020.[14] In 2024, Longlegs surpassed Parasite's domestic box office gross ($53.3 million), with a cume of $58.6 million in its third weekend, becoming the indie distributor's highest-grossing film ever in North America.[15]
Additionally, Neon has worked with several high-profile filmmakers, which includes the following: Ali Abbasi, Sean Baker, Bong Joon-ho, Brandon Cronenberg, David Cronenberg, Nia DaCosta, Sara Dosa, Julia Ducournau, Craig Gillespie, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Harmony Korine, Pablo Larraín, Sam Levinson, Michael Mann, Todd Douglas Miller, Brett Morgen, Ruben Östlund, Laura Poitras, Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Mohammad Rasoulof, Michael Sarnoski, Céline Sciamma, Joachim Trier, Justine Triet, and Nacho Vigalondo.[16][17][18][19][20][21]
During the 4th Annual Zurich Summit, Tom Quinn commented on Neon's intent to release titles that appeal to audiences who "skew under 45, that have no aversion to violence, no aversion to foreign language and to non-fiction".[22] Explaining the success of the company in 2024, Quinn said: "We were very much a startup, with everyone functioning as this sophisticated amoeba. We very quickly found ourselves that year in Toronto with a great slate ... That work enabled us to sit at the table in Toronto that year and buy I, Tonya. Before the ink was even dry on the deal, we were planning its Oscar campaign. It's a testament to how quickly we can make decisions because we're not this big studio. We've always used that to our advantage."[3]
In September 2017, the company partnered with Blumhouse Productions to manage BH Tilt.[23] In 2019, a majority stake of Neon was sold to 30West, the media venture arm of "The Friedkin Group".[4][24]
In February 2021, Bleecker Street partnered with Neon to launch the joint home entertainment distribution company Decal, which is a standalone full-service operation that handles distribution deals on the home entertainment rights to both Neon and Bleecker Street's features. The first film to be distributed through Decal was the Bleecker Street release Supernova in winter 2021.[5] Additionally, Decal acquired North American distribution rights to the South African horror film Gaia for a summer theatrical release, marking their first ever acquisition.[25]
Andrew Brown (Co-President of Decal) oversaw the launch of Neon's home entertainment division. In 2022, Brown was promoted to "President of Digital Distribution". The exec, who has served as "SVP of Digital Strategy, Marketing, and Distribution" for Neon since 2017, also manages Neon's library, and oversees the annual FYC DVD Box Set and direct-to-consumer digital portal "Neon Cinema".[26] Prior to the joint-venture, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, as well as The Criterion Collection and Well Go USA Entertainment (for the film Possessor which Neon and Well Go co-distributed), distributed several Neon films on home video.[27][28][29]
In August 2023, Neon hired former A24 employees Alexandra Altschuler as "VP Media" and Don Wilcox as "VP Marketing".[30] That same month, Neon hired former Sierra/Affinity employee Kristen Figeroid as "President of International Sales and Distribution", Laurel Charnetsky as "VP International Acquisitions & Operations", and Dan Stadnicki as "Manager, International Sales & Distribution".[31]
During the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, which took place from May 2 to November 9, Neon was approved to continue promotional activities for its films, since the company does not have ties to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) nor had encountered any issue in receiving SAG-AFTRA interim agreements.[32][33][34]
In May 2024, Neon hired marketing and publicity veteran Joey Monteiro as "EVP, International Marketing" and Ashley Hirsch as "Manager of International Sales and Marketing".[35] That same month, Neon promoted Elissa Federoff from "President of Distribution" to "Chief Distribution Officer" and Ryan Friscia from "EVP, Finance and Business Development" to "Chief Financial Officer".[36] Additionally, Jeff Deutchman, who joined Neon when it was launched, serves as "President of Acquisitions and Production".[37]
Additionally, Neon has acquired the distribution rights to five Palme d'Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival: Parasite (2019), Titane (2021), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), and Anora (2024); all five won consecutively.[37][38][39] The company's strategy to acquire such titles at Cannes is to eschew "the lazy approach", said Deutchman. "The only real way to do Cannes is to go see as many movies as you can, because you never know where the next Dogtooth or Border or Hunger or Force Majeure is going to come from", he added, citing several modern Cannes standouts championed by arthouse buyers.[37] After acquiring Parasite in 2018, Neon financed and distributed the film the following year in U.S. territories.[40] "From the very beginning, Tom Quinn saw Parasite as a universal film and refused to put it in a box as a foreign-language or international film", said Parasite director Bong Joon-ho. "He saw the heart of the film and understood that it was about all of us living in our modern class-based society. I was always grateful for that."[3] The film subsequently became Neon's highest-grossing film with more than $200 million at the worldwide box office and won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director; Anatomy of a Fall and Triangle of Sadness were also nominated for the two aforementioned Academy Awards.[14][41][42][43][44] As of January 2024, Neon has garnered 32 Academy Award nominations, winning six overall.[3][42][44]
In 2023, Quinn commented on the company's success at Cannes, saying: "We've seen over the years that each of these films, because of their credibility and success, the Palme d'Or has come to mean something quite impactful for a very young group of cinephiles. And the reason why we know this is we've tested all these movies and dating back to Parasite, probably I think, the fifth reason why people came to see the film, in its test screening in Sherman Oaks, was the fact that it won the Palme d'Or, and each subsequent year that went up. And this year, the number one reason why people came to see the film [Anatomy of a Fall], at a test screening in Burbank, was the fact that it had won the Palme d'Or."[45] In 2024, Quinn stated: "The award means a lot. To audiences here who are looking for the absolute most adventurous, forward-looking cinema available, that award represents it because these films have delivered, and they've been major Oscar contenders."[3]
In July 2024, Neon received its biggest opening weekend at the box office with the horror thriller film Longlegs, after scoring $22.6 million from 2,510 theaters (a figure that includes $2.5–3 million in Thursday previews) and only behind Universal/Illumination's second weekend of Despicable Me 4. Initially projected to gross $7–9 million, the opening marked the biggest total for an original horror film of 2024, one of the top 20 weekends for an independent film and the best opening ever for an independent horror film.[46][47][48] To promote the film, Neon utilized guerrilla marketing tactics similar to those that led to the box office success of The Blair Witch Project (1999).[49] Director Oz Perkins credited Neon for the film's marketing, stating the studio "really responded strongly to the movie, the raw materials of the movie really excited them, the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it sounds. They asked me early on, 'Do we have your permission to kind of go nuts?' And I said, 'What else are we doing here? Go for it. Do your thing.'"[50] The film's total marketing budget was under $10 million, focusing on digital content and not having television ads.[46] During its third weekend, Longlegs became the company's highest-grossing film at the domestic box office, earning $58.6 million, surpassing what Parasite earned with $53.3 million in 2020.[15][51][52] Additionally, it became the top grossing R-rated horror film of 2024 and the highest-grossing indie horror film of the last decade, topping A24's Talk to Me (2022), Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) from Focus Features, and A24's Hereditary (2018).[15] Afterward, furthering their unique marketing campaign, from August 1 to 4, Neon (partnering with Atom Tickets) offered free tickets to anyone who has a birthday that falls on the 14th of any given month. To get the tickets, those who registered and purchased tickets through Atom Tickets received a special promo code after verifying their date of birth and were able to get one free ticket per customer, while supplies lasted.[53][54][55]
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