Stuffed raccoon goes for $121,000 at Everything Everywhere All At Once auction
NEW YORK – Independent film studio A24 raised more than US$500,000 (S$673,200) in an online charity auction on Wednesday that featured dozens of props, costumes and other memorabilia from the critically acclaimed film Everything Everywhere All At Once.
A stuffed raccoon named Raccacoonie – a play on the name of Walt Disney’s animated film Ratatouille (2007) – generated the highest bid of US$90,000.
The genre-bending film follows a Chinese-American immigrant and laundromat owner, played by Michelle Yeoh, who is swept into an absurdist adventure to prevent the destruction of the multiverse. The movie is leading this year’s Oscars race with 11 nominations, including for Best Picture.
The 43 items sold in the auction include an anthropomorphic rock with googly eyes that went for US$13,200, and the “hot dog hands” that Yeoh’s character endures in the film, which sold for US$55,000.
Everything Everywhere All At Once has a fiercely devoted fanbase.
Mr Stuart Patterson, an Uber driver in Liverpool, England, said he “completely geeked out” over the film and recently bought a pair of replica hot-dog finger gloves from A24’s website for US$36. He said that the movie’s original items selling at auction were, regrettably, out of his price range.
A24 hosted two previous online auctions, which raised charity funds using costumes and props from a handful of movies and television series, including Uncut Gems (2019) and Euphoria (2019 to present). But the Everything Everywhere auction was its most successful yet.
With global ticket sales topping US$100 million, Everything Everywhere All At Once is the highest-grossing movie to date for the New York-based indie studio.
“This film covers so much that is wondrous about our world and our capacity for imagination without straying too far from themes about our families and our traumas,” said Ms Madeline Carpou, a writer for the pop culture site The Mary Sue.
A24 is donating all proceeds to three charities – the Laundry Workers Centre, the Transgender Law Centre and the Asian Mental Health Project – selected by the film’s directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think a stuffed raccoon would fund this non-profit,” said Ms Carrie Zhang, founder and executive director of the Asian Mental Health Project. - BLOOMBERG
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