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Movies: they’re like if pictures could move.\h
Movies are the backbone of culture: in fact,\h\h

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the movies are the #1 way that people watch\h
Anne Hathaway cry. But did you know that\h\h

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movies can be bad? It’s true. And did you know\h
that those bad movies are often concentrated in\h\h

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very specific calendar windows? Well I sure\h
hope not, because then this video is gonna\h\h

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bomb worse than a movie released in February.
In order to understand when bad movies come out,\h\h

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we first have to understand when good movies come\h
out: summer and the holiday season. The summer\h\h

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blockbuster was invented in the mid 1970s, when\h
Jaws, released June 20th, 1975, became the highest\h\h

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grossing movie of all time, only to be surpassed\h
two year later by Star Wars, released May 25,\h\h

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1977. Studios soon started releasing their\h
biggest, loudest, crowd-pleasiest movies in\h\h

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early summer, taking advantage of kids being off\h
school, adults taking vacations, and the heat\h\h

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making everyone pretty interested in sitting in\h
a big air conditioned room for 90 minutes or so.\h

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The holidays are arguably an even\h
better time to release a movie.\h\h

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Like summer, people have time off from work,\h
and kids have time off from school––plus,\h\h

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people are often looking for something their whole\h
family can do together, and going to a movie is a\h\h

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great way to get your aunt to stop recruiting you\h
to a multi-level marketing scheme for a few hours.\h\h

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Another huge factor is that the cutoff for\h
Academy Award eligibility is the end of the year,\h\h

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so movies hoping to make an awards play often\h
release just before voting starts, in the hopes\h\h

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that recency bias will make them more likely to\h
score a nomination. That’s why you see so many big\h\h

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tentpole and prestige movies come out starting\h
around Thanksgiving and going into December:\h\h

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just look at all the massive IP-fests and\h
Oscar-baits getting released over the coming\h\h

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holidays. Netflix is even getting in on the\h
action, putting out a movie starring five\h\h

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Oscar winners and one Oscar-nominated twink.
So now that we’ve talked about good movies,\h\h

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let’s talk about bad movies. January and February\h
are what are known as dump months: the months with\h\h

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the worst movies. But why? Why does the start\h
of the year mean our movie screens are suddenly\h\h

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bombarded with dirty grandpas and purposeful dogs?
Well, first off, there’s the box office: from 2002\h\h

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to 2012, the average box office for a January\h
release was less than a third of what it was\h\h

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for a December release. There are several reasons\h
for that: first off, theatres are still playing\h\h

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all the big holiday releases, and it’s hard for\h
new January movies to compete with massive IP\h\h

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tentpoles, as moviegoers are mostly just going\h
to see Lego Titanic 3: Into the Shang-Chi-Verse\h\h

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for the fifth time. Second, Oscar nominations come\h
out in early February, and when they do, all the\h\h

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cinephiles focus on watching all the nominees\h
before the Oscars, not watching new February\h\h

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releases. And there are a mess of other factors:\h
people have less disposable income coming off the\h\h

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holidays, winter weather can make it unpleasant\h
to travel to the theatre, and there’s the issue\h\h

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of the Super Bowl: it’s always the first Sunday\h
in February, and it pushes the public’s attention\h\h

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away from actors fake beating each other up and\h
towards athletes actually beating each other up.\h\h

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The two highest grossing movies to premiere Super\h
Bowl weekend are Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus:\h\h

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Best of Both Worlds Concert, and Dear John,\h
two movies aimed at female audiences due\h\h

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to the gender gap in football viewership.
But all of that explains why people don’t\h\h

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see movies released in January and February.\h
The question remains: why are the movies bad?\h\h

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Because they are bad: Rotten Tomatoes found that\h
the average February movie has a 43% lower score\h\h

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than the average November movie. Well here’s\h
a little secret: thanks to test screenings,\h\h

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studios usually know if their movies suck\h
before they get released. But the thing is,\h\h

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they’re still contractually obligated to give most\h
of those movies a theatrical release. So, they\h\h

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intentionally dump their bad movies in January and\h
February because they want to save the good summer\h\h

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and holiday release dates for better and/or IP-ier\h
movies. In part, this lets the studio offload\h\h

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garbage movies while fulfilling their contractual\h
obligations, but it also can help mediocre movies\h\h

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occasionally make a profit, because what they lack\h
in not sucking, they’ll sometimes make up for in\h\h

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being basically the only new thing in theatres.
But movies that come out in January and February\h\h

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aren’t always bad––sometimes, they’re just\h
targeted. Older audiences, for example,\h\h

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are somewhat reliable January and February\h
theatregoers, as they typically have savings\h\h

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that weren’t blown out by the holidays and are\h
often retirees, so they don’t have to return to\h\h

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work. That’s why Clint Eastwood movies often\h
release early in the year and do well––the\h\h

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highest grossing January release is by far the\h
Eastwood-directed American Sniper, because if\h\h

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there’s one thing old people love, it’s military\h
propaganda directed by an 84-year-old former\h\h

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pretend cowboy. Genre movies are also a staple\h
in these months, especially horror films, which\h\h

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are usually low-budget and come with a reliable\h
niche audience of thrill-seekers and teenagers\h\h

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with fake IDs. It’s no coincidence that the two\h
most notable dump month Oscar winners––Get Out\h\h

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and Silence of the Lambs––are both horror films.
There’s also a second, slightly less intense dump\h\h

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period in late August and early September, when\h
school is starting back up, summer blockbusters\h\h

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are still in theatres, and people have less\h
spending money thanks to recent vacation spending,\h\h

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back to school shopping, and seasonal summer\h
jobs ending. Labor Day is famously the worst\h\h

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holiday weekend at the US box office, as families\h
are often too busy squeezing in a final vacation\h\h

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or settling into school routines to go watch\h
Christopher Walken do cultural appropriation.\h

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In recent years, though, studios have started\h
to question if the dump month mindset is a\h\h

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self-fulfilling prophecy––maybe the January box\h
office mostly sucks because the studios ensure\h\h

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that January movies mostly suck. Marvel, notably,\h
has started innovating within the schedule,\h\h

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releasing Black Panther in February, which buoyed\h
the month’s 2018 box office returns to almost even\h\h

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with December, and shattering records by releasing\h
Shang-Chi on Labor Day weekend––suggesting that\h\h

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perhaps there’s a solution to this decades long\h
dump month problem so crazy it just might work:\h\h

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release movies that people actually want to see.
But you know what people don’t want to see? Empty,\h\h

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white walls, but finding artwork, getting\h
it framed, mounting it––it’s time-consuming,\h\h

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expensive, and destructive to your walls. Displate\h
has a better way: they have over a million\h\h

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different artworks from independent artists,\h
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Then, you apply this protective leaf to\h
your wall, stick the magnet on top of that,\h\h

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then the poster just snaps on and it’s super\h
easy to adjust. Including measuring and stuff,\h\h

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I installed these two posters in just a few\h
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