Wonder Studios is seeking to make inroads into Hollywood. To do it, the AI film studio and creative agency, which is valued at around $50 million, is showing up where Hollywood is likely to be.
Last month, the company activated at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) after showing up around the Tribeca Festival in June. Both efforts are aimed at bolstering its brand reputation, co-founder and CEO Xavier Collins told us, a perhaps prudent effort amid widespread pushback against AI use in film and other creative professions.
The appearances around film festivals also offer an opportunity to build community—and to attract advertisers to the creative agency that Wonder runs alongside its film studio, as the company looks to scale, particularly in the US. Company executives have compared its ambitions to the independent production company and distributor A24.
“A24 nailed brand, and Wonder’s going to nail community,” said Collins, who recently relocated to New York from London to support the company’s US growth ambitions. “We think community is the next evolution up from brand.”
Lights, camera, action!
As it seeks to encourage use of its technology in film, Wonder Studios co-hosted an event timed around the Tribeca Festival with the ByteDance-owned video-editing platform CapCut. The event showcased the second season of Beyond the Loop, Wonder Studios’s anthology series that features a slate of short films made by creators using “AI-assisted production workflows.” The season’s cohort of creators included singer Jidenna (readers may remember “Classic Man,” his 2015 hit) who premiered his film KITA, which is centered on the friendship between an aging Nigerian man and a delivery robot.
At TIFF, Wonder Studios co-founder and chief creative officer, Justin Hackney, hosted another event with CapCut, where it screened AI-enhanced films like CLOSET, which follows two boys living in parallel dimensions.
Appearing at film festivals helps bring “traditional industry” folks together with those interested in AI film tools, Collins said. They also offer an opportunity to “eventize IP,” perhaps further encouraging community growth, he added.
“In terms of building our credibility as a film studio, I do think it’s something that can only happen from the bottom up and grassroots-led,” Collins said. “To build the traction and to build the awareness, we just have to get our name out there and we have to just keep creating work. Showing [the work] through festivals and competitions is quite a good way of doing it.”
While the company invests in film-fest appearances, it’s spent little on paid marketing so far, Collins said. He told us the company has only invested between $20,000 and $40,000 in paid marketing since it was founded.
Two birds, one stone?
Another potential benefit to showing up around film festivals is to attract brands to the agency Wonder Studios also runs, Collins said. Between 80% and 90%, originates from inbound inquiries from brands who saw its film studio arm’s content, Collins said. The agency’s recent work includes a 60-second ad for the NFL promoting the Baltimore Ravens vs. Dallas Cowboys game that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last month.
To continue to grow its brand share in Hollywood and in the US market overall, Wonder hired a head of growth, Ryan Ascencio, whose previous experience includes a stint at Westbrook, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s media company. Wonder Studios also tapped a head of studio partnerships and packaging, talent agency CAA alum Inder Gill.
“If you can make a $10 million film for $7 million, for example, that might be the difference between it being profitable or not and that film getting greenlit,” Collins said.
As for the skepticism around AI use in Hollywood, Collins thinks the conversation is bound to change.
“We’re living through a sea change,” he said. “It’s a tricky subject. I think people need to be smart and respectful about how AI is used in the creative process. I think the balance of the conversation has certainly swung and continues to go in that direction. I think that in years to come we will look back at this as yet another breakthrough in technology that aided the creative process versus replaced it.”
