The Best Moviegoing Month

I was looking through the currently slated titles for 2013, trying to get a sense of where next year’s big titles were going to fall. As usual there were a lot of big tentpole pictures in May and June, where the studios traditionally make the most money. March is getting ever more crowded, apparently the new spot where movies originally slated for the previous summer, like “Burt Wonderstone” and the “GI Joe” sequel are all getting pushed back to. However, when I counted up all the movies I was really anticipating, I was surprised to discover that November had more of them than any other month: “Ender’s Game,” the Dreamworks reboot of “Peabody and Mr. Sherman,” “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” and Disney’s “Frozen.” And for you superhero fans, “Thor: The Dark World” has a spot staked out in November too, avoiding the crush of similar movies in the summer.

Now none of these films are prestige pictures, which is what I normally associate with the autumn and early winter months. Those titles don’t get scheduled this far in advance. Instead, all of the movies I’ve listed are traditional blockbuster fare – action movies and CGI animated films. Now the two potentially biggest franchise films next year are both scheduled for May, “Iron Man 3” and “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” I’m looking forward to both of them. However the thing about May films is that they’re expected to be so huge and do so much business, you only have about one major film a week. “Iron Man 3” and “Star Trek” are currently the only films coming out on May 3rd and May 17th respectively, because anything opening against them is going to get creamed. This means fewer films premiering in the month overall. Compare that to the much more crowded and eclectic slates in June and July, where you have match-ups like “Kick Ass 2” opening against the latest Roland Emmerich film, “White House Down,” and “Despicable Me 2” opening against “The Lone Ranger.“

However, looking through the other summer offerings, I just couldn’t work up as much enthusiasm as I had for the November titles. There are plenty of potentially interesting movies there, but not much that made me think I would definitely buy a ticket for that one in advance. What was it about the movies in November that were so much more appealing? And then I thought about it, and I remembered back to when I was a kid, when the only day of the year I was guaranteed a trip to the movie theater was Thanksgiving. After dinner, my older cousins would always take all the kids out to the newest Disney movie like “Beauty and the Beast” or “Aladdin.” The biggest movie weekend of November is the holiday where you’re with your family, and the movies need to be the type that could appeal to a very broad audience. They couldn’t just be for men or for kids, the way that most of the summer movies are, but all four quadrants of the moviegoing audience at the same time. It didn’t occur to me until now, but when you’re talking about big budget spectacle, this is the type I prefer.

The theory holds out when applied to this current November. I just saw Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” and the other wide releases I’m hotly anticipating this month include “Skyfall,” “Life of Pi,” "Flight," and “Lincoln.” I wouldn’t mind taking out the latest crop of younger cousins to Dreamworks’ “Rise of the Guardians” after Thanksgiving this year either. And in case you still think the roster seems a little light, remember that the last “Twilight” movie is expected to clean up at the box office on November 16th. It’s not a movie I’d characterize as appropriate family viewing, but the previous installment did massive business in the same week last year. And if you look ahead beyond 2013, both installments of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” are also scheduled for November in 2014 and 2015, Disney, Dreamworks, and Blue Sky have staked out November dates for an assortment of animated films, and Edgar Wright’s Marvel universe “Ant-Man” movie is tentatively expected to arrive in November, 2015. And don’t forget about future Bond films, which have been a staple of holiday viewing since Pierce Brosnan stepped into the role. The next installment is aiming for a late 2014 release date.

Clearly the appeal of November as a great movie month won't be true for everyone, and if you're a young male between the ages of 18 and 25, summer is definitely still your movie season. However, holiday slates are getting increasingly interesting as we see more major franchises start moving in on the territory. After “Twilight,” “Hunger Games,” and a couple of Marvel movies, who knows what might show up next?
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