Summer and holiday season releases for movies.

[agent817]

I know that movie companies have release dates for some movies and they set it around a time that it might draw more crowds for it. Now, I can say that for this Summer, we had some good releases for the summer like The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Spider-Man, etc. and it does the same in the comedy department because even a lot of people would go watch a funny movie around the time that more people go to theaters. It also applies to family movies.

Same thing goes for the holiday season, particularly the months of November and December. I can see that Skyfall is a movie that I plan to watch around that time. A lot of Christmas-themed movies come out around that time (Though I still remember seeing Surviving Christmas back in 2004 and it came out in October of that year). It seems like Thanksgiving and Christmas time have a lot of hyped releases when it comes to movies around that time.

So when it comes to the off-season (For lack of a better term), when a movie is released around such a time, is it usually likely that the movie will flop? I have heard of hit movies that came out around the Spring and mid-Fall. The Hunger Games is a good example of a movie coming out in the Spring and being a major hit, enough to be in theaters for as long as it did (In my area, it was in theaters for four months, longer than the standard theater-to-DVD gap). I read that the first Lethal Weapon was a Spring release but it did very well in the box office, though the sequels were Summer releases.

Also, when I thought about Marvel movies, most of the Marvel movies are Summer releases, but the only ones that weren't that I can think of are the following:
-The Punisher (It was released in April of 2004)
-Punisher: War Zone (December of 2008, bad time for it in my opinion, though I still saw in theaters)
-Daredevil (February of 2003)
-Both Ghost Rider movies (February releases for both movies)

So if a movie is release in the Summer time or in the holiday season, is it more likely to draw a crowd? Just curious.

[Red Impact]

Summer is when school is out and kids have more free time, so movies that are targeted to family and teens are more likely to be released at that time since that's the busy movie season. Same goes for major holiday releases, they're trying to catch the fact that people are on breaks from work and school and have less to do. In those regards, yes, it's more likely to draw a big crowd, although there's usually a few notable exceptions each year (John Carter was this year's). If you look at the movies with the highest grosses each year, most of them are usually summer and holiday movies.

Later in the year, I believe, is when you see the Oscar-bait movies. They aren't released there to flop, but to get award buzz and succeed that way. They don't make as much as the summer movies tend to, but they don't have as big of a budget either. These movies are pretty much funded by the summer releases.

The first few months of the year tend to be the dumping ground, IIRC, where they put movie that they don't have high hopes for and there's little competition.

This tends to be how things work, although some will buck the trend, of course. James Cameron's huge-budget movies have made a ton of money, and I think a big part of that is that he releases then off-season as Oscar-bait rather than with the other summer popcorn flicks.

[agent817]

Yeah, but because I mentioned Skyfall, ever since Goldeneye, a lot of the James Bond movies have been released around the holiday season. The last Bond movie to be released in the Summer was Licence To Kill. However, you mentioned Oscar-bait movies, I guess the reason Django Unchained is set for release on Christmas day is because there might be buzz for that movie to be nominated.

[daime]

I know both Sherlock Holmes movies came out to theaters in December.

I believe both did very well.

[Bob Schlapowitz]

Beware of movies released in January. There are only two types of movies that get released in January.

1) Absolute crap. January is pretty much the "take out the trash" month

2) Oscar Movies that were opened in 2 theaters the previous Dec. 28 so they'd qualify for Oscar contention, going into wider release.

[Sir Woodrow]

Aug 1, 2012 19:33:23 GMT -5 agent817 said:

I know that movie companies have release dates for some movies and they set it around a time that it might draw more crowds for it. Now, I can say that for this Summer, we had some good releases for the summer like The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Spider-Man, etc. and it does the same in the comedy department because even a lot of people would go watch a funny movie around the time that more people go to theaters. It also applies to family movies.

Same thing goes for the holiday season, particularly the months of November and December. I can see that Skyfall is a movie that I plan to watch around that time. A lot of Christmas-themed movies come out around that time (Though I still remember seeing Surviving Christmas back in 2004 and it came out in October of that year). It seems like Thanksgiving and Christmas time have a lot of hyped releases when it comes to movies around that time.

So when it comes to the off-season (For lack of a better term), when a movie is released around such a time, is it usually likely that the movie will flop? I have heard of hit movies that came out around the Spring and mid-Fall. The Hunger Games is a good example of a movie coming out in the Spring and being a major hit, enough to be in theaters for as long as it did (In my area, it was in theaters for four months, longer than the standard theater-to-DVD gap). I read that the first Lethal Weapon was a Spring release but it did very well in the box office, though the sequels were Summer releases.

Also, when I thought about Marvel movies, most of the Marvel movies are Summer releases, but the only ones that weren't that I can think of are the following:
-The Punisher (It was released in April of 2004)
-Punisher: War Zone (December of 2008, bad time for it in my opinion, though I still saw in theaters)
-Daredevil (February of 2003)
-Both Ghost Rider movies (February releases for both movies)

So if a movie is release in the Summer time or in the holiday season, is it more likely to draw a crowd? Just curious.

There was also Blade 2 which was released in March 2002
Blade Trinity was released in December 2004
Elektra in January 2005
And Thor 2 will be a November release

[wildojinx]

Most Pixar films originally had holiday releases, but starting with Cars they became summer films. Personally, i hate when they take films which could have been good summer releases (like the fourth rambo film) and throw it into the dumping ground season anyway.

[Deleted]

Movies are almost always released at intervals:

*Summertime is when children are out of school, college semesters are over, and people can go on vacations. That's why box office budget-busters are released around this time to maximize profits and make the huge financial endeavor worthwhile.
*The holiday season is when people get together, so it's also a time for similar movies.
*The fall is generally when movies that are made primarily to win awards are released.
*And, after New Year's, your garbage films, or movies that critics are guaranteed to hate, are released.

[Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill]

All three loTR movies were released in December, and The Hobbit is going to follow suit.

[agent817]

Aug 2, 2012 13:20:41 GMT -5 Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill said:

All three loTR movies were released in December, and The Hobbit is going to follow suit.

I know The Hobbit will move tickets as much LotR did. I did mention earlier how James Bond movies have been holiday season releases ever since Goldeneye was released back in 1995. Just like how Twilight movies are released around the holiday season, with the exception of Eclipse, which was released in the summer of 2010.

[Sir Woodrow]

And the Harry Potter movies would alternate between summer or end of year release from the third movie onwards

[agent817]

So does this mean that the likes of The Last Stand, Parker, Bullet To The Head and A Good Day To Die Hard will all be considered crap being that they are released around this time?

I remember going to see From Paris With Love on opening day and while it didn't do that well, there was a good amount of people at the theater and it was definitely not crap.

[wildojinx]

Yeah, im surprised theyre putting out the last stand in January. Especially Last Stand as its arnold's return to the big screen (not counting the expendables films), you'd think theyd want to save that for summer.

[Jiren]

Maybe the summer this year is already jam packed so they want to release them when not much is out so they don't slip through the cracks.

[Deleted]

We're about to have 2 theatrical GI JOE movies, and neither of them got a July 4th weekend opening.

(To be fair, had Retaliation come out last summer, a week before the 4th, it would've been in theatres for that weekend......but it needed 3D that badly I guess...)

[Sc]

Avengers was released in the Spring.

[agent817]

Jan 12, 2013 16:40:09 GMT -5 Sc said:

Avengers was released in the Spring.

Yes, but May releases are usually the ones to kick off the Summer movie season.

[chazraps]

Jan 12, 2013 12:45:42 GMT -5 agent817 said:

So does this mean that the likes of The Last Stand, Parker, Bullet To The Head and A Good Day To Die Hard will all be considered crap being that they are released around this time?

I remember going to see From Paris With Love on opening day and while it didn't do that well, there was a good amount of people at the theater and it was definitely not crap.

Not necessarily. Really, while most of January is crap, it's moreso designated as "tax write-off month." It's when the studios either release movies that A) aren't very good which word-of-mouth will kill, and B) movies that might be could but that they have no idea how to market.

As a result, when a movie is really a risky investment, a January release could be the culmination of an extensive viral campaign, hence so much hype is met with no competition at the box office. The best example of this is probably Cloverfield which (and this isn't a commentary on the film itself) statistically speaking wouldn't have done nearly as well if it would have opened one month before or after.

Following that first weekend in February though, there's a significant difference in the overall quality and marketing. There's more days off in February than most months, so people are expected to have more opportunities to see what comes out. January's really the only month you have to worry about.