I know its something to do with award season, but I’m a little bit special and my brain just cannot connect the dots.
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Basically there’s a huge audience for movies in theaters over the summer, over the holidays, following the big awards shows, and, to a lessor extent, in the fall.
Audiences are least present in the theater in January and February, so good films don’t want to release then. This leaves very bad movies to fill the gap.
All of this is kind of changing post-pandemic/post-streaming, but this was historically why this was the case.
Couple of things.
Awards for movies are based on the *year* that they’re released in… but most Hollywood people don’t have long memories. When you think back of all the movies released, remembering the ones from last month or two months ago is a lot easier than remembering something from 11-12 months ago. (this is also why a lot of “Oscar-bait” movies get released in November & December)
The summer months, along with the HollowThanksMas season, have a lot of people going to see movies. But in January & February, people aren’t going out as much, aren’t spending as much, and there aren’t many holidays that would lead people to see movies in the theater.
(January and February are ‘down months’ for a lot of entertainment and hospitality industries)
At least in the Western world, the year end (for the US more or less from Thanksgiving until the New Years) is kind of the “holiday” season. People will spend a bit more time watching movies, going out with friends, travelling etc. (and overspend their credit cards).
January and February are therefore “recovery” months. People start their New Year’s resolution food diets, go out less, pay down their credit cards etc. In many companies, the start of the year also involves a ramp up of the activities that ramped down for the holidays – lots of tasks that were delayed (usually because people take vacations) now have to get taken care of.
Companies that rely people going out (restaurants, movie theaters) know this cycle and seldom plan major efforts during this period simply because they expect fewer customers.
It’s after the close of award season eligibility so high brow movies aren’t getting released, and its after the peak holiday family movies and blockbusters are released. With fewer high profile movies getting released and fewer in general, it’s as good a time as any to release the lesser films into theaters.
[Half as Interesting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S7UHnGCpmM&ab_channel=HalfasInteresting) explained it very well!
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