Charli XCX knows her audience.
So when A24 quietly dropped limited-edition merchandise for The Moment, the banner headline didn’t read like a standard studio rollout. Instead, it teased: “something for little gay criminals.”
The wink was immediate. The internet responded accordingly.
Banking on Chaos
The capsule riffs on plot points from The Moment, the A24 mockumentary that skewers Charli XCX’s Brat era rise and the spectacle that followed. Among the film’s running gags is the fictional Howard Stirling Bank “brat card” crash, a financial meltdown tied to the pop star’s exaggerated cultural dominance.
The merch leans all the way in.
T-shirts printed with “I lost all my savings in the Howard Stirling Crash” are priced between $35 and $45, turning fake economic ruin into wearable satire. There’s also a glittery green lighter, handmade in Los Angeles and limited to 300 units, retailing for $16. It sold out in under 20 minutes.
Non-smokers bought it anyway.
Fans flooded social media with screenshots of confirmation emails and pleas for restocks. Some joked about needing the lighter “for aesthetic crimes only.” Others demanded the return of the now-infamous puffer jacket seen during the film’s Sundance debut press run.
If the goal was to keep the chaos alive, mission accomplished.
A Film That Arrived Loud
The timing tracks. The Moment opened January 30 in limited release and delivered one of the strongest per-theater debuts in the post-pandemic era. The film grossed nearly $428,000 across four screens, averaging more than $107,000 per location. That places it among A24’s top limited openings, alongside titles like Asteroid City and Uncut Gems.
Directed by Aidan Zamiri in his feature debut, the project was co-written by Zamiri and Charli XCX from an original idea by the singer. It plays as a behind-the-scenes send-up of fame, fandom and self-mythology, blurring reality and performance in ways that feel tailored to her base.
Charli stars and serves as a producer, anchoring a cast that includes Alexander Skarsgård, Kylie Jenner, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou and Rachel Sennott. Early screenings drew more than 60 sellouts, with presales moving faster than any previous A24 limited rollout.
The expansion continues nationwide this week.
Merch as a Meme Machine
What separates this drop from a typical studio shop update is tone. The “little gay criminals” tagline reads less like marketing copy and more like a group chat inside joke. It acknowledges the fandom’s appetite for irony, exaggeration and self-aware chaos.
It also understands scarcity.
Limited quantities, quick sellouts and restock rumors are now part of the conversation, fueling the same kind of urgency that powered the film’s debut. The lighter’s near-instant disappearance only amplified demand, turning a $16 novelty item into a bragging right.
In a landscape where merch can feel obligatory, this feels intentional. It extends the satire beyond the screen and invites fans to participate in the bit.
For a project built on poking fun at celebrity spectacle, the rollout remains perfectly on brand. If The Moment is about controlling the narrative, this latest drop proves Charli XCX still knows how to steer it, especially when her so-called little gay criminals are ready to swipe their cards.
Just maybe not at Howard Stirling Bank.
