{"id":460631,"date":"2026-06-04T12:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460631\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T12:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:56:13","slug":"neon-boss-tom-quinn-talks-backrooms-industry-mergers-70-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460631\/","title":{"rendered":"Neon Boss Tom Quinn Talks ‘Backrooms,’ Industry Mergers & ’70 Up’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNeon<\/a> CEO Tom Quinn<\/a> has heralded the success of Backrooms<\/a> and Obsession, saying the films show \u201cthere\u2019s a younger generation here that\u2019s willing to walk away from their phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tQuinn said the box office breakouts were \u201cincredible\u201d for the industry, and he equated it to a Blair Witch Project-style moment. He also claimed some credit for the success, pointing out that Neon-backed Longlegs\u2018 Osgood Perkins and Chris Ferguson were involved in Backrooms, which was expected to cross the $100M mark domesticall<\/a>y<\/a> for A24.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tQuinn said the wrong lesson from the phenomenon would be to consider them as YouTube movies. \u201cI don\u2019t see it as YouTube or otherwise; I see it as cinema,\u201d he said during an appearance at SXSW London<\/a>. \u201cAnd the fact that it\u2019s appealing to a much younger audience \u2014 which for me, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, is the most over-indexing theatrical audience for me \u2014 is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Backrooms\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tQuinn was not entirely upbeat about the state of the movie business, however. During a thoughtful diatribe (he paused for a few seconds while pondering the biggest challenges facing the industry), Quinn bemoaned the \u201cUber-ization of the industry.\u201d This was his shorthand for the focus on stock prices and consolidation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI worry for the industry greatly. The idea that you\u2019re at a company of 12,000 employees, you\u2019re spending billions of dollars, and this is your end result. This is what you\u2019ve come up with \u2014 that concerns me,\u201d he said, without specifying what the this was. \u201cI think there is a real lack of creativity. Creativity matters in this industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tQuinn said he was grateful to be independent, but what went unsaid was that Neon has held talks with Mike Larocca and Michael Schaefer\u2019s Department M<\/a> about selling a significant stake in the company.<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere in the SXSW conversation chaired by Deadline\u2019s Diana Lodderhose, Quinn talked up Neon\u2019s documentary ambitions. He revealed that Neon has picked up 70 Up<\/a>, the latest instalment in the UK Up series of docs, once directed by the late Michael Apted. 70 Up is directed by Asif Kapadia<\/a>. Quinn said it was \u201cone of my favorite film series pieces of IP of all time,\u201d adding: \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful. I defy you not to cry seeing this incredible film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReflecting on Fjord<\/a> winning the Palme d\u2019Or, the seventh in a row for Neon, Quinn said: \u201cDo I feel any pressure? No. Simply being invited [to Cannes] is an honor.\u201d A basketball fan, Quinn said he was happy to have surpassed Michael Jordan\u2019s six NBA championship wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neon CEO Tom Quinn has heralded the success of Backrooms and Obsession, saying the films show \u201cthere\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[233670,233671,164886,430,156,227542,14741,111,139,69,231625,233672],"class_list":["post-460631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-70-up","tag-asif-kapadia","tag-backrooms","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-fjord","tag-neon","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sxsw-london","tag-tom-quinn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}