“With 39 Academy Award Nominations, 11 Wins, and More Than $ 400 Million at the Box Office In Just Eight Years, Tom Quinn Has Turned Neon Into One of the MOST DISRUNEECESS. The Distributor Beyind Best Picture Winners Bong Joon HOSITE AND SEAN Baker’s Anora, As Well As Oz Perkins’ Horror”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Honored at the Zurich Summit With This Year’s Game Changer Award, Quinn Sat Down with Caa’s Roeg Sutherland Building One of the Premium Brands in Global Cinema.
Quinn’s Origin Story Doubles as A Primer in Entrepreneurial Training. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years -is -of’e gone by so quickly,“ he said, noting he’s worked on “Something Over 400” Films in His Career, from His Neon Titles Back Things. Company, Mark Cuban’s Magnolia Pictures, and at the Weinstein Company’s Label Radius.
Goldwyn for Quinn Was Film School and Boot Camp: He Catalogd Archives, Ran A Project Booth, and Cycleed Through Development, Production and Acquisitions. “SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS THERE GAVE ME A Pathway: I Wanted More Control Over the Movies We Buy, In Service of How They Marketed and Publicized.” Magnolia, Under Cuban, Became The Proving Ground. “Cuban Essentally Gave me Free Rein to Go Buy 40 Movies A Year… There was no censorship, just operating with a Financial Model.” Doing All His Own Modeling, Negotating, and Pitching, “As Executives We Were Cross-Trained,” He Said, Shaped Quinn Approach to the Business.
The Leap from Executive to Founder Began with a Nude from FRIEND, AND FUTURE BUSINESS PARTNER, JASON JANEGO: To Stop “Playing Amateur Ball” and Go Pro. The Result Was Radius, A Boutique Label at the Weinstein Company, that Embrated Simultaneous Vod Releases at A Time Was Still Taboo. Snowpiercer, Quinn’s First Collaboration with Bong Joon HO, Provides Proof of Concept. The Film Grossed $ 4.5 Million in Theaters Despite Having A Simultaneous Vod Release. David Robert Mitchell’s Horror Breakout It Follows Became A Case Study in Adaptive Windowing. “The Plan Was: We Take It Theatric in 20 Markets, With No Announced Vod Window, and Let the Audence Decide of the Next Window,“ Quinn Said. “The Thursday night at the arcLight [in L.A.] DID $ 6,000; that told US it should be a wide release. We Canceled The Vod Window and Went Wide. ”
Jake Weary and Maika Monroe in ‘It Follows.’ Radius-TWC/Courttesy Everett Collection
Quinn and Janego Left Weinstein in 2015 to “Raise Money for a Company That Wuld Right the Wrongs of Previous Places I’D WORKED, Built On Better Business Pracities, Said Quid. “WHERE WE WOULD ONLY WORK ON FILMS WE COURCE SELL WITH A STRAIGHT Face, That We Truly Believed in 100 Percent.”
It Turned Out to Be A Big Ask. IT took Two Years to Raise The Start-Up Capital. Quinn Credits Sutherland with Helping Secure Neon’s First Baccker, SR Media, Which Put in $ 15 Million. Janego Ultimately Steped Away from The Company Before Neon Launchemed in 2017.
Those First Years Were Scrappy, Partly by Design. “IT WAS SIX PEOPLE INSIDE A WEWORK – BASICALLY LIKE A CHEF ON A A CONO LINE,“ QUINN RECALLED. An Early Success Was Matt Spiceer’s Dark Comedy Ingrid Goes West (Acquired Via Caa). Margot Robbie Took Note of Neon’s Campaign for the Film, WHICH EARned A Respectable $ 3 Million. WHEN Robbie’s I, Tonya Came to Market, Neon Was Among The Bidders.
“By then, we were Maybe 15 people, and we have just enough money to buy I, Tonya“Quinn SAID. NEON“ PLUNKED DOWN $ 6 Million, ”and Got The Movie, Despite A Deep-Poked Bid by Netflix
Two Weeks Later, Neon Launched The Film’s Oscar Campaign, Coaching I, Tonya to a $ 30 Million domestic release and 3 Academy Award Nominations (with A Best Supporting Actress Win for Allison Janney). “Everything Changed After That,” SAID WINN. “Filmmakers Started Looking and Saying, ‘Theatrical Is Not Dead. Look at What You Can Do When You Do It Right.’” ”
‘I, Tonya,’ Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding 30West/Courtesy Everett Collection
From there, Neon’s Brand Cohered AROUND Curatorial Convision and the art of marketing. For ParasiteNeon’s Trailer Foregunded the Film’s Only Two Lines of English “We Put Them Front and Center in the Trailer To Give Audiences Comfort,” Said Quinn. For Justine Triet’s Anatomy of avalNeon’s Hook Wasn’t the Courtronic Drama – A Large Poction of the Film – But A WHODUNIT PRAmpt: “DID she do it?” WHICH “AIMED HIGHER THAN WHAT A FILM LIKE THIS WOURT TRADITIONALLY GROSS.”
Neon’s In-House Ethos, SAID QUINN, IS A FORM OF NON-GROUPTHINK. WHEN JASON WALD, VP OF PRODUCTION, PITCHED HIM ON Longungs with a two-minute clip, his instinct was to give the Film a hard no. “I SAID: ‘YOU’RE GOT to be Kidding -We’re Not Doing This.’ ‘BUT WALD CONVINCED HIM. “WHEN OZ [Perkins] Delivered the Movie, and Thought: I Get It! This is a beautyifylly-Made Horror Film. ”
The Longungs Campaign Is Part of the Neon Legend. Their Undergramond Campaign Ditched The Standard Teaser, Trailer, Poster and TV Spots Approach for a Single Cryptic Billboard Figure Out the Mystery of the Film.
“We Saw, Day to Day, The Interaction and Validation Across Materials and World-Building,“ Said Quinn. “The Marketing isn’t Simply Selling The Film, It’s Additive; Its Own Artifact. It Was Fun and Very Effective.”
Longungs OPENED AT NUMBER 2 AT THE US BOX OFFICE, BEHIND ONLY DesPicable Me 4 In it Sophomore Frame, Grossing $ 22.4 Million. IT WENT ON EARN $ 74 Million and Is Still Neon’s All-Time Box Office Champ.
Nicolas Cage in Neon’s ‘Longungs’ Neon/Courtesy Everett Collection
But Neon have Remainned True to Its Arthhouse Roots. Quinn Paid $ 1.6 Million for North American Rights to Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of A Lady On Firean unusual aggressive move for a french-language Title, on personal consonal confusion that “this was a on-in-in-a-lifetime movie.” WHEN QUinn and Acquisitions Head Jeff Deutchman Read Julia Ducournau’s Script For Titanethey Made Her An Offer on the Spot. The Film Went On to Win Cannes’ Palme d’Or, Neon’s Second Palme (After Parasite), and the Start of a Six-Film Winning Streak at the World’s Number-One Film Festival, WHICH CONTINUED THIS Year with Jafar Panahi’s It was just an account.
“Brand Identity Matters. Inside the Company, We Have Painsting Discussions and We Do Not Compromise,” Said Quinn. “That commitment Attracts Filmmakers. Not Everything Works, Butny Year Wear We Try to Put Out The Perfect ‘TEN-FILM’ CATALOG Nine-And Maybe The REST OUR 125-FILM CATALOG. ”
Quinn Addressed the Widespread Rumors that he’s locking to sell that catalog, and all of neon, to the Highest Bidder. “We’re all for sale in somes Way,“ He Admitted, But Said, “Creating A Company Just Was Never My Goal. The Incoming Interest We Get Walidating, IT Shows Wea, Bus, Busa. WITHOUT Taking Much Outside Investment. ”
WHATVER HAPPENS WITH NEON, THIS YEAR’S ZURich Summit Game Changer Said He’ll “Never Stop Going Into Screenings and Trying to Buy MOVIES Credits Roll. That’s Something and Firmly Belide. ”