The movie theater is a great place to meet friends or family members and have fun for a few hours. The high definition screens, the booming audio, and the iconic popcorn and candy make watching movies a great way to pass time. In the summer, the movie industry does extraordinarily well. It’s not summer anymore, but the movie industry is still pumping out big time movies, as if it is summer. Why is this?
Why does this year hold such a strange balance of movies? Why were there so few movie releases over the summer, and so many now that it’s winter?
Moviesinsider.com reports that in November, fourteen movies are released nationwide, compared to twelve released in October and eleven released in December. One would expect that big name movies like, Enders Game, Thor: The Dark World, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Frozen, would be released in the summer, when the movie industry peaks. Why would Hollywood push out so many big movies in beginning of winter?
Many people theorize about why November is now a host for so many new movies. Referencing the big holidays, Halloween and Christmas, which precede and follow the weeks of November, Thomas Baldwin says that November “is like a nebulous period between those two.” He believes that in November, many people have more down time, and thus go to movie theaters more often. Others, such as Bob Jones Senior, Katie Melema, believe the cause is the link with Thanksgiving, claiming, “Families will normally gather together during vacation and sometimes find themselves with nothing to do. As a result, they may just decide to go to the movies.”
However, maybe the release of new movies is too rapid. Perhaps it would make more sense to release the new movies over a long period of time. Such would seem the case to Chandler Sawyer, a junior at Bob Jones, who says, “Most movies come out in these [November] times. So, if they had spread all of the movies throughout the year, I believe people with financial problems would have a better opportunity [to visit movie theaters].”
However, these are not concerns shared by those behind the box office. Perhaps there is no reason for concern. After all, the November releases, such as Thor: The Dark World, and Enders Game, have been vastly successful, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is slated to be even more successful. Boxoffice.com reports that Thor: The Dark World grossed $86.8 million on its opening weekend, and Enders Game earned $10.3 Million on its opening weekend. The same site projects that Hunger Games: Catching Fire will gross $165 million.
Regardless of the cause, the box office is booming. November has become a month of movie nights.
