Resend: How Christmas Movies Grow
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Resend: How Christmas Movies Grow
It's Christmas time again, so I'm re-sending out my "How Christmas Movies Grow" article from last year to get you ready for the Christmas season!
For anyone new here, I’m the founder of Woo Punch, a brand consultancy rooted in evidence-based brand design. I write about the evidence that debunks brand purpose, differentiation, brand love, loyalty marketing, customer personas, color psychology, mission statements, customer engagement, AdTech, and “hustle culture.”
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How do Christmas movies become classics?
Last year, I spent some time digging into this question. I was curious if there were any similarities between how Christmas movies grow and brands grow.
I couldn’t nail down a precise answer to that question, but I found some interesting patterns.
Here’s an excerpt:
THE HOME ALONE EXCEPTION
In November 1990, Home Alone surprised its studio. According to Box Office Mojo, Home Alone only played in 1,200 theaters during its opening weekend. As a result, it sits in the 38th percentile for all theatrically released Christmas movies in terms of the number of opening weekend theaters. This is very telling because it suggests that 20th Century Fox (the studio behind Home Alone) didn’t seem to believe their film would be that successful.
Despite being released in fewer theaters than 64% of all Christmas movies, Home Alone absolutely killed in its opening weekend. 20th Century Fox took note and drastically expanded its release in the weeks following.
At the time of Home Alone’s release, most films averaged around 4 weeks per theater. Home Alone averaged 22 weeks!
By the end of its theatrical run, Home Alone was the single highest Lifetime Adjusted Grossing Christmas movie of all time and 43rd among all films! So why was 20th Century Fox so surprised by Home Alone’s success?
It was an entirely original film, void of any real stars.
A film like that had never become a Christmas classic then and still hasn’t today! 20th Century Fox gambled on Home Alone and hit the jackpot.