Club Kid: Jordan Firstman’s $5M A24 Debut Sets November 6 Release

Club Kid, Jordan Firstman’s self-written directing and starring debut, lands an A24 theatrical release on November 6, 2026, with a November 25 expansion timed to the Thanksgiving corridor.

The film arrives as an original independent feature, not a franchise extension, and its economics are built accordingly.

“Forty-two percent” of the protagonist is Firstman himself, the filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter of the connection between him and his lead character, Peter.

Twenty-Six Days and Under $5 Million: Firstman’s Discipline Behind the Camera

Firstman compressed the entire shoot into 26 days for a budget just below $5 million, a schedule that leaves no room for indulgence on set.

The production shot on film stock, with Adam Newport-Berra handling cinematography and Taylor Levy and Sofía Subercaseaux cutting the picture.

That photochemical choice signals a deliberate texture play: grain and warmth over digital sheen, positioning the nightlife milieu as something lived-in rather than curated.

A pivotal London location shoot further widens the film’s geographic footprint beyond its New York nightlife core, adding a second production base to a lean independent calendar.

Cristobal Tapia de Veer, whose scoring work has become a signature of unsettling prestige television, composes, an aural counterweight to the film’s party-floor energy.

Casting the Foil: Delevingne, Calva and Absolom Around Firstman’s Peter

The ensemble balances Firstman’s promoter persona against a roster built for range: Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Colleen Camp and Vicki Pepperdine.

Reggie Absolom plays the 10-year-old son whose arrival detonates Peter’s decade of clubbing, casual relationships and drug use, the dramatic hinge the entire film swings on.

Calva brings post-Babylon arthouse credibility, while Camp and Pepperdine supply the comic veteran ballast that keeps a nightlife dramedy from curdling into miserablism.

The supporting bench, including Nigil Whyte, Eldar Isgandarov, Saturn Risin9, Miss Benny and Alaska Riley, roots the film in authentic queer nightlife casting rather than stunt names.

A24’s November Bet: Six Theaters, Then the Thanksgiving Push

A24 opens the film in six theaters on November 6, a platform launch designed to build word-of-mouth before the November 25 expansion into the Thanksgiving play period.

The early-November slot keeps Club Kid clear of the tentpole crush, letting adult audiences find it before holiday family traffic reshapes the multiplex.

That opening weekend produced a reported $403,475 from those six sites, a per-screen figure that gives the distributor a credible argument for widening.

The Philadelphia Film Festival Narrative Feature audience award handed A24 a ready-made marketing line, audience approval, not jury prestige, which suits a crowd-pleaser with midnight-movie DNA.

The theatrical window doubles as the film’s subscriber funnel: strong limited-run grosses and festival buzz convert into streaming sign-ups and retention once the title moves to the platform.

For a sub-$5 million original with no franchise scaffolding, every screen added on November 25 is a bet that Firstman’s 42-percent-autobiographical Peter can carry a holiday crowd, tracked across our theatrical release calendar.

Reviewed by

Chief Reviewer

Ankit Jaiswal

Editorial Director - 7+ yrs

Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.