Death of a Unicorn
WhileA24 ’s output is largely adore by critics and successful at the box place , Death of a Unicorn ’s underwhelming debut proves that there is one genre that the distributor ca n’t quite get veracious . A24 has come a long path since the 2013 release of managing director Roman Coppola ’s infamous flopA Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III . That self - soft Charlie Sheen vehicle might have been the first ofA24 ’s foresighted list of movies , but it is not one that many viewers call up of when the distributor is mentioned in 2025 thanks to their stellar data track record .
FromThe WitchtoMoonlight , toHereditaryandUncut Gems , the distributor is now synonymous with hit movies that strike a balance between ambitious arthouse vision and mainstream entreaty . Over the last 12 years , A24 has become a scratch of timbre 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 was n’t as rhapsodic as most major A24 movies . In fact , Death of a Unicornexposes a coherent gap in the distributor ’s yield .
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 critic as the movie debut to a vital grievance of only 53 % onRotten Tomatoes , and its $ 10 million chess opening weekend failed to recoup a comparatively low $ 15 million budget . Although this loge office under - carrying into action could be blamed in part onA Minecraft Movie ’s unexpectedly monolithic success , the vital indifference thatDeath of a Unicornmet with is less loose to pardon .
2025 ’s Opus , 2024 ’s Y2 K , 2023 ’s Beau Is Afraid , 2021 ’s False Positive , 2018 ’s Slice , and 2014 ’s Life After Beth all sputter to win over critic .
Moreover , A24 ’s end product over the last decade paint a damnatory portraiture of its drollery repugnance exploit . 2025’sOpus , 2024’sY2 K , 2023’sBeau Is Afraid , 2021’sFalse Positive , 2018’sSlice , and 2014’sLife After Bethall skin to win over critics , andOpus , Y2 K , andBeau Is Afraidwere all also major financial failures upon liberation . LikeDeath of a Unicorn , which starsWednesday ’s Jenna Ortega , OpusandY2Kboasted buzzy unseasoned actors in their lead function . 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 see the television 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 musical genre . Ti West’sX , Ari Aster’sMidsommar , Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou’sTalk to Me , Jane Schoenbrun’sI see the TV Glow , and Halina Reijn’sBodies body Bodiesare just some of the allocator ’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 legal age 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 repugnance moviesincluded massive hits likeScream 2022andBeetlejuice Beetlejuice , while music 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 part be attributed to its three - hour runtime , especially consider the movie ’s sensation - studded mould .
Why A24’s Horror Comedies Haven’t Worked (Yet)
Most of the Distributor’s Horror Comedies Have Been Too Broad and Silly
concord to critics , the biggest problem with A24 ’s horror comedy movie is their shared musical note . The main shared review ofY2K , Opus , Death of a Unicorn , Slice , andFalse Positivewas that they bounce between overt , broad comedy and sudden moments of darkness and gore without ever finding a consistent musical note . The surprisingly brutal , sad deaths inY2Kjarred with its pert , self - parodic sense of humour , while the whacky satire ofOpusmade attempts at straightforward horror sense punch-drunk .
Death of a Unicorn sees wizard Jenna Ortega bring one major career trend to an final stage after let go eight movies over the trend of the last five years .
Death of a Unicornstruggles with the same issue , as the movie does n’t take its uber - affluent baddie as gravely asThe White LotusorSuccession . As such , last of a Unicorn‘s storystruggles to truly dash , but its comedy is too dismal to feel like harmlesss playfulness thanks to some surprisingly blue deaths . Although this criticism does n’t give to some A24 horror comedies , like the aggressively abrasiveBeau Is Afraid , it is the coarse denominator share by many of the allocator ’s under - performing championship in the musical style . Thus , Death of a Unicornregrettably keepsA24 ’s solitary inhuman streak going .
Source : Rotten Tomatoes
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