A24, the studio people associate with creepy dollhouse horror and Oscar-bait weirdness, is apparently writing a very un-A24 check.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, the company’s film adaptation ofElden Ringis cruising past a$100 millionbudget. That’s not “indie darling takes a swing.” That’s “we’re playing in the same sandbox as the big boys now.” And here’s the part that actually matters: the cameras are reportedly already rolling. This thing has moved beyond the usual video-game-movie purgatory where projects get announced, trend for a day, then vanish forever.
A24 crossing $100 million isn’t a flex, it’s a whole identity crisis
For A24, $100 million is a different species of filmmaking. This is the studio ofHereditary,Midsommar, andEverything Everywhere All at Once, movies that feel personal, risky, and (usually) made without a blank-check mentality.
At this price point, you’re not just paying for artistry. You’re paying for armies of crew members, long post-production schedules, heavy visual effects, and the kind of marketing push that doesn’t politely ask for attention, it buys it.
The Hollywood Reportersays A24’s previous high-water mark wasMarty Supremeat around$70 million. Jumping from $70 million to $100+ million isn’t a little stretch. It’s a new operating system: bigger logistics, bigger expectations, and a much shorter leash if the movie doesn’t land.
Why ‘Elden Ring’ looks like a “safe” bet, until you remember what the game is
If A24 is going to swing this hard, it helps thatFromSoftwareisn’t some niche brand. The company has a global reputation for punishing, prestige gaming, stuff players brag about surviving.Hidetaka MiyazakiturnedElden Ringinto a cultural object, not just a hit, powered by streams, memes, and that instantly recognizable dark-fantasy rot-and-gold aesthetic.
And yes, Hollywood loves a name, so here comes the shiny one:George R. R. Martin. His contribution toElden Ringis mostly deep lore and backstory, not scene-by-scene plotting, but his fingerprints helped sell the world as something with dynasties, betrayals, and history stacked like sediment. That’s catnip for an adaptation, because it suggests the movie can be about more than a highlight reel of boss fights.
But the core problem doesn’t go away:Elden Ringworks because it’s fragmented. You learn the story by wandering, failing, reading item descriptions, and piecing together half-whispered myths. Movies don’t get to hide behind “go explore for 40 hours.” A $100 million budget won’t solve that. It’ll just put the storytelling choices under stadium lights.
Filming has reportedly started, and the movie may show the world before it broke
The reporting says production is underway, and extras have allegedly been spotted dressed as ordinary citizens. That’s a juicy clue, because the game mostly gives you a world after the fall: ruins, ghosts, monsters, and a civilization that already lost.
A smart film move would be to cut betweenpast and present, show the Lands Between when it still had a pulse, then contrast it with the bleak, wandering nightmare the player knows. That would help non-gamers understand what’s at stake. You can’t mourn a collapsed society if you never see it standing.
It also explains the money. Re-creating a functioning civilization, even briefly, means crowds, costumes, sets, and scale. That’s expensive fast, especially if the movie wants to do iconic locations likeLeyndelljustice.
And “justice” here can’t mean copy-pasting the game’s visuals shot-for-shot. Fans don’t need a museum exhibit. They need the feeling: grandeur, menace, and that sickly beauty that makes the world look both holy and doomed. Video game adaptations faceplant when they confuse references with filmmaking.
Video game adaptations are hot now, A24 wants in without turning into a factory
The timing isn’t accidental. Video game adaptations aren’t a punchline anymore. Studios have figured out that gamers show up, and non-gamers will watch if the thing is good on its own terms.
For A24, that opens a door: make something big enough for a wide audience, but weird enough to still feel like A24.Elden Ringis a decent match for that impulse because it’s atmospheric and interpretive. The world doesn’t over-explain itself. The violence has a ritual, mythic quality. If any studio can try to make a dark fantasy that feels authored instead of manufactured, it’s probably this one.
Still, the higher the budget, the less patience the market has for “vibes.” A $100+ million movie usually has to move, clarify, and simplify. That’s the opposite ofElden Ring’s whole deal. The tension is obvious: keep the mystery and risk confusing newcomers, or sand it down and risk enraging the people who made the game a phenomenon.
A24 is stepping into the majors’ arena, and the rules are brutal
Once you’re spending this kind of money, you’re competing with the studios A24 used to side-eye from across the room. Now the checklist gets unforgiving: VFX quality, action coherence, a cast that can sell tickets worldwide, and a release date that doesn’t get steamrolled by some corporate behemoth.
And when a movie costs $100 million, every flaw gets louder. A shaky script, muddled editing, or a misjudged art direction choice doesn’t just hurt the film, it becomes a headline about overreach.
If A24 pulls this off, it proves the studio can go big without turning into another franchise mill. If it whiffs, Hollywood will file it under the same old lesson: a massive IP and a massive budget still don’t guarantee you can translate an interactive obsession into a movie people actually feel.
