Choosing Silence

From MGM’s lion to Dreamworks’ fisherman — everyone who’s ever sat in a cinema is familiar with the iconic production logos of many of the industries heavy hitters. Some of the sounds that accompany them, like THX’s infectious riser or 20^th Century Fox’s horns, have stood the test of time and defended their spots in the shared cultural zeitgeist for nearly a century. But in 2026, the award-winning, critically acclaimed “indie-darling” of the industry, A24, still choose silence altogether.

Production house sonic logos have been included in films since the very beginning, and were upgraded to animated logos with accompanying sounds when the art form adopted audio in the 1920s. Some of those early logos are still seen today, like Columbia Pictures’ interpretation of the Statue of Liberty, which dates back to the early sound-films of the 20^th century and has merely been given a face-lift every couple of years.

While these sonic logos can vary greatly in length and spectacle across different production houses, they are all brandishing their own boutique sound, whether it be a song or sound effect. Some instances (like 20^th Century Fox’s silent and snowy showing for Edward Scissor Hands) — stand as exceptions, but are exceedingly rare amongst the Big Five studios and their competitors. The efficacy of these sounds and their ability to permeate throughout culture are well and truly established; they stand as shining examples of the power of repetition in sonic branding, of how consistently employing your sound signature helps it stick in the minds of the consumer.

Enter A24, the independent New York based production and distribution house that’s largely responsible for arthouse cinema’s recent foray into box-office blockbusters. Their most recent breakout hit, Backrooms, allowed them their best opening weekend by a mile and have ensured that their production logo will be plastered on screens worldwide — why then is it silent? And it’s not just Backrooms: all of A24’s logos play out silently. They clearly have a sonic identity (leveraging their prestige through full-bodied string movements) as displayed in their podcast materials, why not just adapt that for the big screen? It’s too glaring to be an oversight for such a successful company.

As a studio, A24 garnered its initial popularity through allowing the director an unprecedented amount of freedom to ensure that their vision is put to screen. In an industry where the director is almost always at the whim of corporate overheads, A24 wanted to step back and let the director make the movie they wanted to make. Their decision to stay quiet in the opening moments of a movie makes more sense when viewed as a way to uphold one of their core tenants, because what arthouse director’s vision truly includes 22 seconds of uplifting strings? They don’t want to get in the directors way, and as such their logo is always played silently or with audio from the actual movie. Sometimes people speak over it. 

In this sense, their logo takes a backseat to the movie, and that’s exactly how they want to be viewed as a production house. They stand in contrast to every other production house, and maybe staying silent while everyone else around them begs for your attention is the best way to showcase that.