WhileA24’s output is largely adored by critics and successful at the box office,Death of a Unicorn’s underwhelming debut proves that there is one genre that the distributor can’t quite get right. A24 has come a long way since the 2013 release of director Roman Coppola’s infamous flopA Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. That self-indulgent Charlie Sheen vehicle might have been the first ofA24’s long list of movies, but it is not one that many viewers think of when the distributor is mentioned in 2025 thanks to their stellar track record.
FromThe WitchtoMoonlight, toHereditaryandUncut Gems, the distributor is now synonymous with hit movies that strike a balance between ambitious arthouse vision and mainstream appeal. Over the last 12 years, A24 has become a mark of quality in almost every genre. However, althoughDeath of a Unicorn’s cliffhanger endingmight fit with their back catalog of ambiguous, surreal output, the movie’s reception wasn’t as rapturous as most major A24 movies. In fact,Death of a Unicornexposes a consistent gap in the distributor’s output.
Death of a Unicorn is A24’s Latest Critically Underperforming Horror Comedy
The Distributor Has Attempted To Pull Off This Genre Blend Many Times
Death of a Unicornis the latest in a long string of horror comedy flops for A24, as the distributor continues to struggle with this particular genre.Death of a Unicorn’s brutal killsdidn’t win over critics as the movie debuted to a critical score of only 53% onRotten Tomatoes, and its $10 million opening weekend failed to recoup a relatively low $15 million budget. Although this box office under-performance could be blamed in part onA Minecraft Movie’s unexpectedly massive success, the critical indifference thatDeath of a Unicornmet with is less easy to excuse.
2025’s Opus, 2024’s Y2K, 2023’s Beau Is Afraid, 2021’s False Positive, 2018’s Slice, and 2014’s Life After Beth all struggled to win over critics.
Moreover, A24’s output over the last decade paints a damning portrait of its comedy horror efforts. 2025’sOpus, 2024’sY2K, 2023’sBeau Is Afraid, 2021’sFalse Positive, 2018’sSlice, and 2014’sLife After Bethall struggled to win over critics, andOpus,Y2K, andBeau Is Afraidwere all also major financial failures upon release. LikeDeath of a Unicorn, which starsWednesday’s Jenna Ortega,OpusandY2Kboasted buzzy young actors in their lead roles.OpusfeaturedThe Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, whileY2KstarredSnow White’s Rachel Zegler.
Ti West’sX, Ari Aster’sMidsommar, Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou’sTalk to Me, Jane Schoenbrun’sI Saw the TV Glow, and Halina Reijn’sBodies Bodies Bodiesare just some of the distributor’s successful horror titles.
Despite their appealing casts,Y2Kearned only $4 million on a budget of $15 million whileOpusmade a mere $2 million on a budget of $10 million. Horror has historically over-performed for A24, with some of the studio’s biggest hits coming from the genre. Ti West’sX, Ari Aster’sMidsommar, Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou’sTalk to Me, Jane Schoenbrun’sI Saw the TV Glow, and Halina Reijn’sBodies Bodies Bodiesare just some of the distributor’s successful horror titles but, notably, only the last of these is a horror comedy.
Death of a Unicorn’s Box Office Struggles Underline A24’s Horror Comedy Problem
Opus, Y2K, and Beau Is Afraid All Struggled Financially Too
The majority of A24’s horror comedy movies have struggled with both reviewers and viewers alike, even when they come from otherwise reliable creators.Jenna Ortega’s earlier horror moviesincluded massive hits likeScream 2022andBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, while director Ari Aster’sMidsommarandHereditarywere both huge hits before 2023’sBeau Is Afraid. Despite this,Beau Is Afraidearned only $12 million on a budget of $35 million. This was a catastrophic under-performance that could only partially be attributed to its three-hour runtime, especially considering the movie’s star-studded cast.
Why A24’s Horror Comedies Haven’t Worked (Yet)
According to critics,the biggest problem with A24’s horror comedy movies is their shared tone. The main shared critique ofY2K,Opus,Death of a Unicorn,Slice, andFalse Positivewas that they bounced between overt, broad comedy and sudden moments of darkness and gore without ever finding a consistent tone. The surprisingly brutal, sad deaths inY2Kjarred with its irreverent, self-parodic sense of humor, while the goofy satire ofOpusmade attempts at straightforward horror feel silly.
New A24 Horror Movie Is The End Of A 5 Year Jenna Ortega Trend That’s Dominated Her Career
Death of a Unicorn sees star Jenna Ortega bring one major career trend to an end after releasing eight movies over the course of the last five years.
Death of a Unicornstruggles with the same issue, as the movie doesn’t take its uber-wealthy villains as seriously asThe White LotusorSuccession. As such,Death of a Unicorn‘s storystruggles to truly scare, but its comedy is too dark to feel like harmlesss fun thanks to some surprisingly grim deaths. Although this criticism doesn’t apply to some A24 horror comedies, like the aggressively abrasiveBeau Is Afraid, it is the common denominator shared by many of the distributor’s under-performing titles in the genre. Thus,Death of a Unicornregrettably keepsA24’s lone cold streak going.
