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two of the three main Movie releases on Christmas Day The holiday season doesn’t offer much in the way of family-friendly viewing.
Baby Girl, starring Nicole Kidman, is an erotic thriller in which Kidman becomes embroiled in a torrid affair with a company intern.
Kidman described the film, starring Antonio Banderas and Harris Dickinson, as “obviously about sex, about desire, about what’s inside you, about secrets, about marriage, about truth, about power, Agree” at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
“This is a woman’s story, and I hope it’s a very liberating story,” the Academy Award winner said. Every variety.
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“Baby Girl” starring Nicole Kidman is released, a film she calls “liberating” “Christmas.” (A24)
Nosferatu, on the other hand, is a dark, horror-filled film based on the story of the original 1922 silent film Dracula, which early reviews also labeled “pornographic” and “seductive.” Human Terror” label. According to IndieWire.
One of the film’s stars, Lily-Rose Depp, acknowledged that the film is not a typical Christmas story, but joked: “Who doesn’t love a Christmas scare?” in an interview Entertainment Weekly.
“There’s a couple of Christmas Easter eggs in it, so I feel like if you were watching it at Christmas, you’d feel in tune with it, you’d feel like they were there at the same time as you,” she continued. “And, you know, there’s snow! It’s getting really cold. Who doesn’t like thinking about death and the realm of the dead on Christmas Day?”
There’s a larger strategy behind the decision to release both films on the biggest holiday of the year.
Lily-Rose Depp joked that her new horror film Nosferatu is a Christmas movie because “you know, it snows out there!” (Courtesy of Focus Features/© 2024 Focus Features LLC)
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“This really has nothing to do with the holidays,” Travis Knox, an associate professor at Chapman University, told Fox News Digital. “It’s awards season. You have all these movies talking about potential Oscar nominations.”
Knox explained, “In order to qualify for the academy, you have to be in the theater for seven days. So, you look at December 25th, and then you open up, and that gives you seven days. So, put The movies are right at the end and probably won’t be released on a large number of screens, which makes them all eligible for Oscars.”
Both “Baby Girl” and “Nosferatu” are making waves during awards season and will be Oscar-eligible after their Christmas releases. (A24/© 2024 Focus Features LLC)
“All a lot of them want is to keep them on a limited number of screens in the new year. See what happens during awards season and then go from there. If you start winning awards, you’ll use that to scale Getting into more and more theaters, that’s really what they’re doing.”
The third major film for Christmas is the Bob Dylan biopic Total Unknown, starring timothy Chalamet, This certainly has wider appeal, in part because of its star, whom Knox noted is “everybody’s favorite person in their teens and early twenties,” and is likely to draw in viewers.
Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in Total Unknown, which opens on Christmas Day. (Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures)
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“The Wicked” is also about to be released It offers a sing-along option when it is screened on Christmas Day, giving people the chance to make their voices heard through a box office hit.
Lara Rosales, a senior writer at Tell-Tale TV, told Fox News Digital, “A lot of people want to sing along, but so far, it’s been like, ‘Please don’t do it while we’re watching the movie. Sing. ‘But it gave a lot of people the opportunity to do that, especially people who had kids and wanted something to do on the day and might have seen the movie, and the kids were obsessed with the soundtrack, like a lot of people were. So it’s a great option for them to watch.”
“This actually has nothing to do with the holidays. This is awards season.”
As for new movies more specifically related to the Christmas season, many of them are now showing on streaming services and cable channels like Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix.
Rosales speculates that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in what is being shown in theaters and at home.
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“People are using these platforms more because even if theaters reopen, a lot of people are afraid to go to theaters and be in a closed space with a lot of other people, so they’re choosing streaming services and these kinds of movies are becoming They are more popular and more accessible to people,” she said.
Rosales continued, “You don’t have to pay for a ticket for every member of the family. You have a streaming subscription and that’s enough for everyone to watch. So I feel like it becomes more accessible and more of a family-friendly show Plus, if you have kids, you don’t have to worry about going to the cinema and maybe your kids will disturb other people when it’s a Christmas movie and you can just relax and enjoy it at home.”
Wicked will offer sing-along screenings starting on Christmas Day, (Universal Pictures)
Knox noted that in addition to movies like “Wicked,” “Moana 2” and “Mufasa: The Lion King” are both in theaters, so “it’s not like there’s no family fare. It’s just that for blockbusters, It’s actually a very crowded season” which may also put some people off releasing a brand new holiday movie based on an IP this time of year. “
Amazon-MGM does have an original Christmas movie in theaters in November, the action comedy Red One, Starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans. The film had a budget of $250 million, but its U.S. debut grossed just $32 million and received mediocre reviews (it currently has a 30% score on Rotten Tomatoes).
Red One , starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, was released in early November and hit the streaming service earlier this month. (Karen Neal/Prime)
When Red One hit Prime Video last week, the company said it was the streaming platform’s most-watched movie premiere ever, attracting 50 million viewers worldwide.
“Whether people like it or not, the value of these movies is different for our business model… If we can release these movies theatrically and cover our P&A (print and advertising) costs, why wouldn’t we? We MGM’s theatrical distribution boss Kevin Wilson, who is getting Amazon, said: ‘There needs to be a massive marketing campaign before the movie starts streaming’ told Variety.
“When it’s a Christmas movie, you can just relax and enjoy it with them at home.”
Knox considered this statement “dubious” for the film’s financial success.
“Counting it on a napkin, they’ve lost over a billion dollars before they even started going live. They said 50 million viewers the first weekend…that’s a win. (With) that much money, you really Are there enough new subscribers? They’re already subscribed to Prime. I think it’s a huge mistake and it’s irresponsible to spend that much money on that movie.”
“Red” flopped in theaters, but according to Amazon, it attracted 50 million viewers and became the most-watched movie premiere on Prime Video. (Frank Massey/Prime)
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Rosales believes the film might have had greater theatrical success had it premiered closer to the holidays.
“Probably a lot of people will see this movie, especially now that it’s out on a streaming platform, and they might watch it with their families as Christmas approaches, which is probably why it didn’t do well in the box The Office, probably would do better now on a streaming service,” she said. “I think for any Christmas movie to be successful it has to come out close to Christmas to give people a Christmas spirit and get into the holiday spirit and have a countdown to Christmas kind of thing.”
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Fewer family-friendly or holiday-themed movies being released on Christmas is not a new phenomenon.
Every box office magicSherlock Holmes, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Unbreakable and The Jungle Book are currently the top five box-office movies released on Christmas Day.
Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr., tops the box office for Christmas releases. (Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)
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Knox explains these five “They’re all very, very strong films, so to speak. Yes, it’s a Christmas movie. But again, it’s more about the awards.”
“There are a lot of families who go to see Quentin Tarantino movies[like ‘Django Unchained’]‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Les Misérables.’ They’ve built up an audience, so at Christmas It actually makes a lot of sense to open the door on holiday.”
As Rosales said, going to the movies with family or with friends on Christmas Day is a popular activity, so having a variety of options is important.
Kidman describes Baby Girl as “obviously about sex, about desire, about what’s going on inside you, about secrets, about marriage, about truth, about power, about consent.” (A24)
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“They’re different types, different types of stories, and they all appeal to people because they’re different. If we were to start premiering Christmas movies like we are now in November, by Christmas Day we’re definitely going to want to see something different stuff,” she said. “That’s what those movies offer.”
