Moviegoers beware: The January movie dumping season has begun,
and this year’s contestants shouldn’t fail to
disappoint.
It is no surprise that every element in Hollywood is well
crafted, from Jennifer Lopez’s next divorce right down to the
nitty-gritty business of film release dates. After coming off the
success of the heart-wrenchers and tearjerkers of December, studios
treat January as a perfect opportunity to get rid of marginal films
that cater to younger demographics.
Just look at a couple of last year’s January releases:
“Just Married,” “A Guy Thing,”
“Kangaroo Jack,” and “Final Destination
2.”
Fortunately, these disasters-waiting-to-happen can be relatively
easy to spot. If the movie stars a former “Saturday Night
Live” cast member or the latest Hollywood sex kitten, the
chances of the movie being good seem to drop dramatically. Another
sure warning sign is if the release date constantly changes,
perhaps to confuse unforgiving critics.
If January represents the start of a fresh, new year and a
chance for studios to repent for past mistakes, what could possess
movie executives to start the year off with flops? The answer lies
in the idea that many studios are riding the waves of success from
their December releases,which they’re still promoting for
Oscars.
“Generally speaking, films released early in the year are
ones that the studios don’t have much faith in, as it is not
a particularly active movie-attending period,” said Richard
Walter, a screenwriting professor at UCLA’s School of
Theater, Film, Television and Digital Media.
Some UCLA students also notice the trend of mediocre so-called
teen flick releases during the beginning of the year.
“Every three-day holiday weekend, there is always that one
big, action blockbuster, like how “˜Independence Day’
was for the Fourth of July weekend,” said Elizabeth Branham,
a third-year history and English student. “Yet there was no
such movie for this past three-day weekend.”
True, there are a lot of inferences to make with an off-season
release. Yet, the moviegoing public, particularly college students,
will continue to support these types of films. There is no other
time besides summer when studios cater so much to the younger
demographic. Oddly enough, this is not entirely a bad thing. There
has been a lot of slack given to January releases, and the general
public seems to turn the other cheek in the face of these
inferences.
“Audiences don’t pay attention to when movies are
released, like movie professionals do,” Walter said.
“Audiences don’t determine whether they will watch a
movie or not from its release date.”
Another plus is that these movies are not absolutely horrible;
if they were, they would have been directly shelved and released as
videos and DVDs, like “Bring It On Again.” One has to
believe studios have faith in these films. Otherwise, they
wouldn’t have shelled out the money to finance them in the
first place. Sure, there aren’t going to be many classics
among the January lot, but that is what the month of December is
for, anyway. Plus, there is always the potential of running into
sleeper hits.
Like it or not, there is a sizable market for these movies.
Sometimes senseless bathroom comedy and wild sexual escapades can
be a relief.
“As artistically insightful and deep as indie flicks are,
they just don’t cut it sometimes,” Andy Chao, a
fourth-year economics student, said.