The Cinematic Calendar and Film Seasons

Summer is for the blockbusters. Winter is for the awards. Each season of the year comes with certain connotations in the film world. Unfortunately, this means that there are "dry spells" that release fairly mediocre movies; these usually come after big seasons in film. For readers who are not sure when the good months and the bad months are, here's a breakdown of the Cinematic Calendar:

January-  End of Awards Season and the Holiday Film Season; begins to slow down after New Years

February- Relatively slow, but the Oscars at the end of the month sometimes surges a bigger box office profit than usual as less regular moviegoers are more in the "movie mood"

March- One of the "Dead Months", though it can surprise us if it releases a bigger name than usual (i.e. 2012's The Hunger Games, which dominated the box office with big numbers throughout the whole month)

April- May start to pick up towards the end, but oftentimes another slow month

May- The beginning of the Summer Blockbuster Season, usually with some of the best box office receipts of the year

June- With school letting out, kids and teens start heading to the movies; oftentimes, June is the biggest month of the year for kids movies

July- A huge month in the Summer Blockbuster Season, with some of the biggest films of the year aiming for a release in this mid-summer mega month

August- The Summer Blockbuster Season starts off strong in the beginning, with the big July releases still making an impact on the box office; starts to dwindle towards the end

September- The other big "Dead Month"; after everyone spends their money at the theater over the Summer, the theaters are virtually empty as school starts and weaker movie titles are released

October- The movies start to pick up again, with bigger titles coming out and the Horror Season of Halloween hitting towards the end of the month

November- The beginning of Awards Season, November used to be the weakest of the "award months", but in recent years, this month has been the best indicator of who will win at the Oscars in February; the start of the Holiday Film Season

December- A big month in Awards Season, and the high point of the Holiday Film Season; besides the Summer, December usually has the best box office receipts of the year

This calendar has been proven wrong in the past (for example, some of the "Dead Month" films have actually had pretty big releases, especially in recent years), but in general, the movie theaters tend to follow these trends. From the Cinematic Calendar, we can see that the different seasons have different values associated with them. The breakdowns of the big seasons are as follows:

Summer Blockbuster Season (May-August)- Since the release of Jaws (Spielberg) in 1975, more movie companies have begun releasing films that emulate the "popcorn entertainment"of mindless action and thriller genres. Over the past few decades, a growing number of Summer movies have dominated the yearly box office profits. High grossing movie franchises, such as the Harry Potter, Star Wars, Batman, and Pirates of the Caribbean films, have aimed for a release during the Summer Blockbuster Season to ensure highest viewership, and therefore the best box office numbers possible. Some common characteristics of the Summer Blockbuster Season include:

• Main Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Superhero
• Other Genres: Comedies, Romances, Mysteries
• Rarely: Dramas, Art-House 
• Heavy use of the latest special effects
• Big name stars, directors
• Sequels are very prevalent during this time
• Big films that generate "box office buzz" (highly anticipated, guaranteed to have a huge crowd)

Awards Season (November-January)- Films released during the late Fall, early Winter season usually have "awards buzz" and generate bigger receipts for films that otherwise wouldn't stand a chance. Several art-house dramas, such as The King's Speech (Hooper, 2010) and The Artist (Hazanavicius, 2011), have bigger box office profits than usual during this time due to "Oscar Buzz" that predicts who are likely to win in a given year. Also, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who vote for nominations and the actual awards are likely to remember films they just saw, and will more likely vote for them as a result. Therefore, distribution companies who want their films to generate "Oscar Buzz" will release them during this Season to make sure Academy voters remember their films when they vote on the ballot. Characteristics of Awards Season include:

• Main Genres: Drama, Art-House
• Other Genres: Comedies, Romances, Mysteries
• Rarely: Action, Adventure
• Big name stars equally as present as the unknown stars
• More cerebral, thinking films that challenge the viewer to look at a movie "in between the lines"
• Less popular and less anticipated than Summer movies 
• More "awards-friendly" dramas

Holiday Film Season (November-January)- Combines both the big-money sensationalism of the Summer Blockbuster Season with the more cerebral qualities of Awards Season. Films released during this time often include adaptations of popular books, sequels, mysteries, and of course holiday movies.

The Horror Season (October) is a relatively short season that inspires a brief re-surgance of horror films that become popular around Halloween, even if it's only briefly.

"Dead Months" (Late January-March and September)- The self-incriminating title aside, this season features relatively weak movie titles that have very low box office profits. This season usually occurs in the aftermath of a big movie season.

I hope this gives you a better view on what the Cinematic Calendar looks like, and have learned why certain movies come out at certain times. Hopefully this lets you decide which months you enjoy the most, and I'll see you at the theater!