What killed the Christmas movie?

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Iis the ending ding-dong-good-on-barely for once such an important part of the film calendar? There was a time when audiences flocked to theaters every December to experience Christmas blockbusters: festive multiplex crowd-pleasers designed to lighten the mood (and make major studios considerably richer). Last month, however, came a reminder of how drastically things could have changed. The red onean action comedy about a kidnapped Santa, not only endured brutal reviews, it also suffered the indignity of opening weekend equivalent to a stocking full of coal, earning $32.1 million. £196m) budget. This despite a cast led by two of mainstream cinema’s biggest names: Marvel’s Chris Evans and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Theories about the Amazon-backed caper’s underperformance have varied. Some have suggested that audiences didn’t want “Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock” — if you’ll excuse the pun — with Johnson’s star power seemingly on the wane (just look at how his Black Adam franchise failed to launch in 2022). Others have blamed confusion over the film’s target audience; The red one occupies “an ill-considered audience no-man’s land, too intense for young children … and too bland to attract teenagers and genre fans”, wrote Wendy Ide in The Observer. In Hollywood and internally at Amazon, however, many point to an assumption among consumers that the film would be available to watch at home on Prime Video before Christmas, so what was the point of going to the theater and paying for tickets? (And they were right: The red one arrived at Prime yesterday.)

But there may be a completely different reason. The red one‘s stuttering rollout is yet another example of how Hollywood studios seem to have lost both the desire to make festive films and the knowledge of what makes them connect with moviegoers. In other words, it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas hits have found themselves on a cultural naughty list – unwanted by audiences and mismanaged by studios.

Of course, Christmas movies still exist. America’s Hallmark Channel has spawned a cottage industry of schmaltzy romcoms so popular that Netflix has begun to follow suit with films like this year’s Hot Frosty – about a hunky snowman who comes to life. And then there are low-budget comedy specials such as Prime’s Jack in time for Christmaswhere Jack Whitehall races across America with the likes of Rebel Wilson and Michael Bublé. But Christmas blockbusters – the kind designed to storm the box office – is undoubtedly in decline.

“There seem to be fewer of them, and fewer that bring people together the way Christmas movies once did,” admits Canadian director Michael Dowse, whose 2021 comedy 8-bit Christmas is one of the rare recent holiday films financed by a major studio (Warner Bros) that has made a breakthrough, albeit on streaming. The 51-year-old grew up in an era of near-constant Christmas releases, of which he cites one in particular as a major factor in his decision to become a filmmaker: “I rented (National Lampoon’s Christmas holiday from Blockbuster and never returned it. I must have seen that movie 70 times,” he laughs. That film, he points out, was released in 1989 — slap bang within a five-year period that would see Alone at home, Die Hard, Scrooged, Edward Scissorhands, The Muppet’s Christmas Carol, Batman returns, Die Hard 2, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and The Nightmare Before Christmas snowball in cinemas.

Just compare that flurry of releases to today. Of course, there is the occasional cult hit by an indie auteur, such as Alexander Payne’s HoldoversGreta Gerwig Little Women or Todd Haynes’s Carol. But gone are the days, apparently, when the December box is ruled by festive glasses. Among the 20 highest-grossing Christmas movies of all time are just three films from the last decade, all of which fall off the list when older films’ box office receipts are adjusted for inflation. These three movies are 2018 animation The Grinchforgotten Mark Wahlberg comedy Father’s Home 2and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms – a film that lost Disney a reported $65m and is considered one of the biggest flops in recent Mouse House history.

On popular American film podcast The big picture last week host Sean Fennessey suggested that 2003 might have been the last year in which festive films made a dent in the zeitgeist, with Elf and Actually love among the year’s publications. Hollywood reporter Jeff Sneider, whose newsletter The InSneider follows projects in development and observes Tinseltown trends, is inclined to agree. “They’re mostly the streaming domain now. Last night I stayed up watching Nutcrackersa new Ben Stiller (Disney+) movie,” he says. “15 years ago it would have had a theatrical release. Hand luggage is another example, right? It’s a new Netflix Christmas action movie starring Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman. Once upon a time, these movies would have been in theaters.” Now, though, they’re popping up on streaming services, where they risk getting lost in a platform’s bottomless bucket of content. (Remember the 2022s Spiritedstarring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds? How about the 2023s Candy Cane Lanewith Eddie Murphy? Neither does anyone else.)

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Others suggest that the cultural decline of the Christmas movie has everything to do with our changing tastes. “It’s the Deadpool-ification of movies that has really had an effect,” says a screenwriter with a Christmas drama currently in development hell, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Christmas movies are meant to be a bit serious and sincere. It’s like baked into their DNA. And right now, the whole mainstream film culture is out of step with it. That makes it hard for anything to move (out of development and into production) that doesn’t cover Christmas in a flashy, ironic way.”

“The snark is a problem,” Dowse agrees. “A good Christmas film can be funny, but it must have a purity of heart for it to resonate in a traditional way. I get sent a lot of Christmas movie scripts and they subvert it with an action idea or a horror idea.” That’s why Christmas movies that have received theatrical releases in recent years include John Woo’s gimmicky, dialogue-free action films Silent Nightor the David Harbor vehicle Violent nightin which Stranger Things star played a Santa Claus bordering on John Wick.

Another issue could be the Christmas movie release window. In the last decade, at least since the 2015s Star Wars: The Force AwakensDecember has increasingly been a space on the calendar for sequels in major franchises, among them Avatar: The Way of Water, Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrection. “Christmas is a huge movie time, and it’s when the studios want to leave plenty of room for their tentpoles,” says Sneider. “This year it is (The Lion King successor) Mufasa. If you look at the December calendars going forward, it’s Star Wars and Avatar.”

Today’s franchise-driven Hollywood doesn’t want to stand in the way of these juggernauts – especially when Christmas movies themselves rarely lend themselves to franchises. Besides Home Alone, Gremlins, Die Hard or Bad Santa, how many festive sequels can you name?

It also doesn’t help that the studios used to take bigger chances ideas in the heyday of Christmas movies. Alone at homefor example, attracted audiences because of its premise about a little boy fending off burglars on his own during the Christmas holidays—relatively unknown Macaulay Culkin certainly wasn’t the draw. People like Will Ferrell and Bruce Willis were similarly untested movie stars when they starred Elf and Die Hardrespectively But that wouldn’t fly today.

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“There’s an impression (now) among Hollywood executives that at a time when you’re competing with TikTok and YouTube for people’s attention, there’s almost no point in releasing a movie without a big star,” a source familiar with the matter said. with the production of The red one tells me. “Which leads to these crazy inflated budgets because you’re paying so much for actors.” (The Rock was reportedly paid $50 million to perform The red one – a fifth of all the costs of making the film.)

Dowse believes it would be a shame if the Christmas film were to disappear. At their best, he says, they play an important social role. “Families watch them together,” he says. “It’s a big part of life, and I think, especially, American life that starts at Thanksgiving — people starving down to watch movies as a family. I don’t think there’s a lack of appetite. I I think there will always be a market for them. I think it’s just about threading the needle and finding a story that’s unique enough and gives a certain feeling.”

“I think it requires (studios) to revise their idea of ​​what a Christmas movie is,” agrees Sneider. “It doesn’t have to be a $250 million world-building thing with giant polar bears and explosions. At the end of the day, we just want some heart.”