A24's members' club grows up.
+ a promising East Village summer, Carbone internships, and more.
Good morning everyone. Did you know A24 had a membership club? I did not.
I learned last night that A24 not only has a membership club called AAA24 (awesome site design, awareness needs work), but is also hiring a new Director of Membership. The program originally launched in April, 2022. It was $5/month, and gave members perks like “Close Friends” status on A24’s Instagram account where they’re given access to secret giveaways, and subscriptions to the production company’s zines. Three years later, the program is $10/month, and perks have advanced to movie tickets and screening invites.
It makes sense that A24 is doubling down on this program — I have seen men at Le Dive in this beanie on dates; I have read the subreddits where posters basically ask for dissertations to defend why The Whale is a good movie. And now A24 wants to own and control that larger ecosystem — potentially even make money off of it — with a refined membership program.
There are a few key phrases in the job listing that standout to me:
“Be directly responsible for member experience - ensuring our AAA24 members feel like VIPs and value their benefits.” This makes me think of the Delta Lounge, and Amex platinum features, and the treatment you might get at a physical members club. It emphasizes *specialness* and possibly an additional tier for members in the future — it’s also probably why they want someone who has worked in membership programming to get this job.
“Ability to think outside the box, bringing fresh and innovative ideas to enhance the membership experience.” The A24 team knows that the current structure of the programming needs help. I texted
this morning about this story and he had some good ideas (if you apply to this job you can have them for free): “They should be raffling off set visits. Zooms with cast and crew. Like why do they not have AAA24 exclusive early screenings. If they do, why haven’t I heard of them?”“Constantly find ways to deepen AAA24’s integration with A24’s broader ecosystem across Film, TV, and beyond.” They need to put those Reddit users into an owned channel. Maybe it will be Substack (I can think of a few people who would like to help with that), maybe they’ll build an app. But I could see
Earlier this year, I wrote that if I was going to start a newsletter today, I’d lean heavily into paywalled chats and comment sections — I already do that, but I’d make it part of the content plan. I could see A24 leaning in to this kind of experiment. And I’d willingly participate. Curious if any of you are AAA24 members.
Other noteworthy clubs to think about today: Rancho Gordo Bean Club, Tiro a Segno (I’d give someone full control of Feed Me for 24 hours if they brought me shooting here), the Dog Day Afternoon Frequent Franker secret society, the East End Community Organic Farm, and of course, Feed Me keychain holders.
I know there are a few thousand college students who read Feed Me. While researching for the letter over the past few weeks, I came upon some exciting internships that I’d be applying to if I was in college and didn’t have a summer game plan lined up yet.
Major Food Group Summer Internship: Based in New York. This is a 10-week hands-on learning program designed to help you build a foundational set of hospitality skills and general business acumen that will set you up for success beyond your internship. $20/hour.