Neon (company)

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. As of 2019, League is no longer involved with daily operations for the company.

Its first film, Colossal, was released on April 7, 2017. 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), Spencer (2021), The Worst Person in the World (2021), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), Ferrari (2023), Anora (2024), and The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024). Parasite is Neon's highest-grossing film at the worldwide box office with more than $200 million and became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

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.

History
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". In September 2017, the company partnered with Blumhouse Productions to manage BH Tilt. In 2019, a majority stake of Neon was sold to 30West, the media venture arm of "The Friedkin Group".

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. Additionally, Decal acquired North American distribution rights to the South African horror film Gaia for a summer theatrical release, marking their first ever acquisition.

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". 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.

In August 2023, Neon hired former A24 employees Alexandra Altschuler as "VP Media" and Don Wilcox as "VP Marketing". 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".

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.

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". 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".

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. After acquiring Parasite in 2018, Neon financed and distributed the film the following year in U.S. territories. The film subsequently became Neon's highest-grossing film with more than $200 million at the box office and won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Bong Joon-ho); Anatomy of a Fall and Triangle of Sadness were also nominated for the two aforementioned Academy Awards.

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."

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.