Silly Questions About 'Star Wars': Do you think that Disney's plan to release Star Wars movies around Christmas is to make the holiday about Star Wars instead of the true meaning of Christmas?
Superman was also released as a "Christmas movie" in 1978. It didn't change the "true meaning of Christmas." © 1978 DC Comics and Warner Bros. |
Do you think that Disney's plan to release Star Wars movies around Christmas is to make the holiday about Star Wars instead of the true meaning of Christmas?
Hardly.
Traditionally, all of the major movie studios, including Paramount Pictures, Columbia, Universal, MGM, and Disney’s newest acquisition, 20th Century Fox, have always released major movies during the December holiday season. This is nothing new, and it’s not, as you suggest, a marketing strategy centered around one movie franchise.
There are several reasons behind this strategy, but the biggest ones are:
- The holiday season is when most businesses usually make the most money
- Children and adolescents are on winter break
- The last quarter of the year (October, November, and December) is when most studios release their “prestige” films, just in time for the Golden Globes and Academy Awards season
- Adults are more primed to go to a movie during holiday breaks, including the more recent vintage (since 1975, anyway) summer blockbuster season that was ushered in by Steven Spielberg’s Jaws
Star Wars, which during the George Lucas era also ushered in the Memorial Day Weekend “beginning of the summer movie season” (May 25, 1977), is not the only major film franchise with holiday season release dates. Here are other movies that opened in December:
- Superman: The Movie (December 10, 1978)
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (December 7, 1979)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (December 19, 2001)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (December 18, 2002)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (December 17, 2003)
- The Post (December 22, 2017)
- Schindler’s List (December 15, 1993)
- Munich (December 23, 2005)
So no. I don’t think that Disney's plan to release Star Wars movies around Christmas is to make the holiday about Star Wars instead of the true meaning of Christmas. Movie history and American business practices do not support this flawed theory.
Comments
Post a Comment