'Carol' to cash in on early-bird Christmas spirit

MOVIES | Yule right after Halloween

Know what goes well with candy corn? Apparently, chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

The 3-D family film "Disney's A Christmas Carol" premieres in theaters today, on the heels of the horror shows of Halloween and just in time for the annual observation that the holidays seem to arrive sooner every year.

But there is method -- and precedent -- for Hollywood opening a yuletide movie so soon.

"It's now surprising if there isn't a holiday movie right after Halloween," says Jeff Bock, box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations Co.

"Fred Claus," "The Polar Express," "Elf," the Tim Allen "Santa Clause" films -- all marched into theaters right after All Hallows' Eve. That's because Christmas films don't follow the same life span of others, which draw most of the audience in the first two weeks before tapering off into oblivion.

Instead of a sprint, Christmas movies run a marathon. They ebb and flow, starting slow, then building as Thanksgiving approaches, and reaching a crescendo closer to Dec. 25. "It used to be that Thanksgiving was the epicenter of the holiday movie season, but we jump into holiday mode in Hollywood sooner now to maximize the profits during the entire Christmas season."

But once New Year's Eve arrives, it's over.

"Holiday-themed movies tend to peter out when you get to the actual holiday, and with that being the case you want to give yourself as wide a berth as you can," says Chuck Viane, Disney's distribution chief.

Frontloading the film's release date helps capitalize on the earliest wisps of yuletide sentiment in moviegoers. "We ask, 'When does the switch in the marketplace turn from Halloween to Christmas?' And that literally is the day after Halloween. You go to a mall, and it's decked out with Christmas decorations already," Viane says.

This year, there's pressure to be early, since James Cameron's 3-D sci-fi epic "Avatar" will claim a swath of the limited number of 3-D-ready theaters when it premieres Dec. 18. "We have to maximize our positioning in front of that," Viane says.

The timing works for "Christmas Carol" director Robert Zemeckis, who notes: "It's a Christmas story and a ghost story, so this becomes the perfect time."

Gannett News Service