If ever there was a month which proved that brand matters, even in the film industry, then it was June 2024. Over the past month, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a theatre chain with – arguably – one of the strongest movie brands in the U.S., and Thrive Capital led a funding round of A24, the indie studio with the hippest reputation among moviegoers thanks to hit, boundary pushing, award winners such as “Lady Bird,” “Moonlight” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”

The full amount of the round was not disclosed though it is rumored to be in the neighborhood of USD $250 million with Thrive accounting for roughly USD $75 million. That is enough to get Thrive founder, Joshua Kushner, on the board of A24. If some of these names sound familiar that’s because Thrive was the investment firm Bob Iger briefly joined in between his stints as Disney’s CEO and Kushner is the older brother of Jared Kushner, that guy from President Trump’s administration who was put in charge of peace in the Middle East during his presidential term.

As The Information reported, Thrive is one of OpenAI’s top investors so now there is a lot of speculation about any symmetry’s that might bring. The new investment gives A24 a valuation of USD $3.5 billion, up 40% from USD $2.5 billion, its valuation during a 2022 funding round. To put that in perspective, A24 has a library of 150 films and 50 television series, whereas Lionsgate’s 20,000+ title film and television library has a market cap of USD $4.8 billion and Amazon purchased MGM, with its 4,000 film titles and 17,000 TV episodes for USD $8.5 billion in 2022.

While outside investors like Thrive only own 12.5% of the company, with A24 founders, Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges owning the majority stake along with employees, at some point these investment firms are going to want a return on the money they are plowing into the company at a significant multiple. Given the indie distributor’s current valuation, the math on that may become increasingly complicated. Who knows, maybe all that merchandise A24 sells to fans of its movies brings in more revenue than everyone assumes.