‘Parasite’ Has Shocked the Box Office, Helped by an Upstart Studio

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/business/media/parasite-movie-studio-neon.html

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LOS ANGELES — It was not a surprise that critics would love “Parasite,” the latest film from the acclaimed director Bong Joon Ho. But box-office success for this sometimes funny, sometimes horrifying Korean-language tale of economic inequality was no sure thing. Enter Tom Quinn, the head of Neon, a rising independent film distributor and production company.

Mr. Quinn, who had worked with Mr. Bong on four of his earlier movies, secured the North American distribution rights to “Parasite” on the strength of the script in October last year. He was there at the Cannes Film Festival in May, when the film received an eight-minute standing ovation and the festival’s highest award, the Palme d’Or. After returning home, Mr. Quinn saw it once more in a theater. He said he had cried through the ending.

That was months before a theatrical run that has defied assumptions about the entertainment industry at a time when streaming has threatened the cinematic experience and movies with superheroes are among the few surefire box-office bets.

Since rolling out internationally over the summer and in North American theaters last month, “Parasite” has grossed more than $114 million worldwide. Domestically, where it has played on 620 screens, it is still going strong, having earned more than $16 million. Mr. Bong, the director, said he appreciated working with someone like Mr. Quinn, an executive unjaded enough to weep in a movie theater.

“I was a little taken aback when I heard that,” Mr. Bong said in an email. “Usually, distributors focus on analyzing and luring the audience through marketing campaigns, which is of course necessary. But Tom can still put himself into the audience. I think that’s pretty unique.”

Mr. Quinn, 49, is not one for the sky-is-falling mentality that has gripped much of Hollywood. He has built Neon into a power among independent distributors with an old-school formula: trusting his taste and paying to acquire intelligent films that audiences will pay to see in theaters.

“Where else can we create this communal experience?” he said. “It has a little bit of fellowship, a lot of fun and it only happens in church, school and the theaters. I think there is something very sacred about that.”

He started Neon in 2017 with Tim League, the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain, who is no longer involved in the company’s daily operations. In addition to “Parasite,” Neon scored this year with the documentary “Apollo 11,” which had a 38-week theatrical run on its way to earning more than $16 million worldwide.

While box-office revenue for independent films was sinking during the first half of the year, down 36 percent, according to the box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, Neon also found success with the Aretha Franklin documentary “Amazing Grace,” which played in theaters for 50 weeks starting last December.

“They’ve helped reignite interest in theatrical documentaries,” Stephen Gilula, a co-chairman of Fox Searchlight, said of Neon.

“Parasite” is practically guaranteed an Oscar nomination in the international category — a would-be first for a South Korean film — and has a strong chance of a best picture nomination. Neon’s marketing of the film, including a cryptic Instagram account, is in keeping with the tantalizing campaigns for earlier movies that included surprise plot developments like “The Sixth Sense,” “The Crying Game” and “Psycho.”

“Looking at Neon’s original and witty marketing campaigns, I can feel the energy that comes with being a young company and a young distributor,” Mr. Bong said.

After working at a video store when he was a student at the University of North Carolina, Mr. Quinn started his career at Samuel Goldwyn Films before joining Magnolia Pictures, where he discovered Mr. Bong’s “The Host” and its follow-up, “Mother.”

In 2011 he went to work for Harvey Weinstein, starting Radius-TWC, a label at the Weinstein Company. In that job Mr. Quinn protected Mr. Bong’s 126-minute cut of the 2013 thriller “Snowpiercer” from the boss, who was known as Harvey Scissorhands for his tendency to cut films in the editing room. Mr. Quinn left in 2015, two years before the company imploded after sexual misconduct allegations against Mr. Weinstein, and little by little he raised $30 million to get Neon off the ground.

The company, which has 27 employees, became a player at the Toronto Film Festival in 2017, when it joined with the media investment company 30West to beat out Netflix for the domestic rights to “I, Tonya,” despite offering considerably less money, Mr. Quinn said. “I, Tonya” went on to make $30 million in theaters and won a best supporting actress Oscar for Allison Janney, who played the mother of the protagonist, the figure skater Tonya Harding.

Mr. Quinn said Neon had often found itself in competition with Netflix. “A lot of times the money is the same, and a lot of times the money is three times what we are offering,” he said. “But they are offering it without a guarantee of a theatrical window or even a theatrical qualifying window. And we are committed to the theatrical experience.”

Last year 30West bought a controlling interest in Neon, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles. The deal has given the company some protection in an industry littered with studios and distributors that have flamed out after hot streaks. Neon will thrive if Mr. Quinn’s eclectic taste continues to match up with what audiences want.

A recent disappointment centered on the French film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” a period romance from the writer-director Céline Sciamma. Neon acquired the North American rights to the film with Hulu, the streaming service controlled by the Walt Disney Company, and will release it Dec. 6. The early reviews were ecstatic, and it won the best screenplay award at Cannes, but its awards prospects took a hit when France selected Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” as the film it would submit to the 2020 Oscars.

“It was extremely disappointing,” Mr. Quinn said. “I don’t think I could talk for a day. I was really sad for Céline.”