A24‘s new horror movie starts 2025 on the wrong note by continuing an unfortunate trend on Rotten Tomatoes for the studio. The indie studio is fresh off an exceptionally strong 2024 with The Brutalist, an epic period drama, up for ten Academy Awards including Best Picture, and is one of the favorites to take home the ceremony’s top prize on March 2. A24 also has a ton of other 2024 movies involved in awards season, such as Sing Sing, A Different Man, Heretic, Queer, and Babygirl.

Looking ahead in the calendar, 2025 should be another interesting year for A24. March will see several exciting releases for the studio, including A24’s new horror movie Opus, starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich, followed by the horror-comedy Death of a Unicorn, starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega. In April, Alex Garland’s new movie Warfare and The Legend of Ochi are set for release. Later in the year, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme starring Timothée Chalamet is set for Christmas Day, while his brother Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson is also expected to be released in 2025.

Opus Continues An Unfortunate A24 Rotten Tomatoes Trend

The Horror Movie Is Starting 2025 On The Wrong Note

Opus starts 2025 on the wrong note for A24 by continuing an unfortunate trend on Rotten Tomatoes. Written and directed by Mark Anthony Green in his feature debut, the upcoming A24 horror film follows a young writer who visits the secluded estate of a vanished pop legend and, surrounded by his devoted followers and reckless journalists, becomes ensnared in his eerie scheme. The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri leads the cast alongside John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder, Young Mazino, Tatanka Means, and Tony Hale.

Now, fresh off its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, A24’s new horror movie is continuing an unfortunate trend for the studio on Rotten Tomatoes. Opus has debuted to a 41% score on Rotten Tomatoes with 22 reviews at the time of writing. Though it will fluctuate as more reviews are published, this is around the same score that A24’s The Front Room (41%) and Y2K (43%) earned last year, the studio’s lowest of 2024:

What Opus’ Rotten Tomatoes Score Means For A24

What Are The Reviews Saying?

Unfortunately, it looks like Opus is picking up where A24 horror left off in 2024 instead of forging its own path in 2025. Overall, Opus reviews are more mixed than its Rotten Tomatoes score would suggest – praising its strong performances, striking visuals, and intriguing ideas – but criticizing its uneven storytelling, lack of depth, and failure to fully deliver on its horror and satire. For instance, ScreenRant‘s Graeme Guttman rated the film a 7 out of 10 in his review, writing that “Ayo Edebiri is the perfect final girl” in the “hilarious and horrifying A24 horror movie.”

A24’s unfortunate trend is also continuing into 2025 with Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, set for a theatrical release on February 7, quietly receiving a 47% Rotten Tomatoes score. However, A24’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is set for release in the United States on March 7 and has a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Though Opus is continuing an unfortunate trend on Rotten Tomatoes for A24, the studio should be able to rebound with plenty of promising releases left in 2025.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes