Holiday Season Movie Outlook

SA Engages

November 20, 2015

It’s “that” “time of year” again. Everyone is gearing up for “the holidays”, and in many places, that includes getting ready for holiday movies. And since you already have a lot on your plates with shopping, decorations, and avoiding 2nd and 3rd tier relatives, please, at least let us help you get ready for holiday movies. Of course, “holiday” movies are not just movies that are all about Christmas. We measure them based on the old, old standard of “movies released sometime between mid-November and Christmas day”. This is valuable information because you don’t want to get in line with that special someone at the theater this holiday season and think, “I didn’t know about that movie!”, thereby embarrassing your date, forcing him/her to decide whether or not to feign sickness or pull a fire alarm to escape and salvage his/her night. So, let’s see what you’re going to go see.

Blockbusters galore! That’s the first chapter of our money book from 1991 called “Ways to Get Rich for the Next 8 or So Years”. It’s also a good way to describe the next month and a half in movie releases. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (Nov. 5) gets things started, kicking off what looks like a 1,600 foot wave of a black hole of movies from which no one can escape:

Disney’s Big Hero 6 (Nov. 7) combines the big, fun heroics of Wreck-It Ralph with the Huh?-ness of Wall-E.
Dumb And Dumber To (Nov. 14) FINALLY gives 35-year olds the sequel to end all sequels (assuming Braveheart 2 is not in the works).
Liberty-friend Kirk Cameron throws his hat into the ring with an actual Christmas movie, Saving Christmas (Nov. 14). LET’S HOPE HE SUCCEEDS.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Nov. 20) continues to satisfy the demographic “Yeah, I usually don’t read books but I REALLY loved The Hunger Games and, I don’t know, I just always kind of pictured Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss”.
December 12 will be like double Christmas for some people as we not only get the final installment of The Hobbit with The Battle of the Five Armies, but also another Bible movie ($$$!), Exodus: Gods And Kings. Yet again, leave it to Hollywood to mangle a Bible story. The Exodus movie strays pretty far from the biblical narrative when (spoiler alert) Pharaoh’s magicians are defeated by Gandalf. (Excellent cross-movie promotional strategy, though. Bravo, Hollywood execs!)
Musical fans, rejoice! You not only get the Annie remake you’ve been crying for (Dec. 19), you also get the Into The Woods movie version you’ve been tearfully begging for (Dec. 25). The point is fans of musicals are very emotional.
On a sentimental note, movie fans will see Mickey Rooney’s and one of Robin Williams’ final films in the dramatic conclusion the Night at the Museum trilogy in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (Dec. 19). Less sentimentally, Crystal the monkey reprises her role as “Dexter”, the annoying monkey. Breathe easy, fans of this movie franchise.

Will any of these movies make a holiday movie best-of list and/or become synonymous with “the holidays”? It’s hard to say. Consider: unofficially, Die Hard and Harry Potter are two of the top holiday movies of all time. Yet, officially, Die Hard and Harry Potter get disqualified from holiday movie best-of lists for the same reason: excessive amounts of Alan Rickman. So we can just say “too soon to tell” where movies from this batch will end up; history will judge. In any case, you are now prepared for the holiday movie season. Movie Christmas and a Happy View Year!

Stay tuned to our Movies page for the dates of our upcoming Movie Nights!