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Winter: The Movie Dead Zone

by Emily Saeger
03/15/2008

All dressed up with nowhere to go? The movie theatre may not be your best bet. At least not this time of year. After all, it’s the new year. Shouldn’t you be at the gym anyway? You’re not meeting that resolution by sitting in a darkened theater.

January and February bring not only frigid temperatures and torrential downpour, but this is also the time of year when the movie companies dump the bottom of the barrel on us. So, even if you're willing to drop $10 in exchange for a couple of hours of entertainment, there is much to be desired at a theatre near you.

Why do the producers punish us when it’s too cold to play outside, especially after months of writers’ strike madness? First, the seasons for big blockbusters are over. The kids are back in school after a summer of Transformers and Harry Potter. The Thanksgiving—Christmas lineup usually consists of feeble attempts at heart-warming comedies dripping with holiday cheer, along with big-budget dramas to bait the Academy.

The other reason for the winter becoming movie-purgatory is the awards season. The Oscars are over and the big contenders that were released between October and December have had their moments of glory. Now we get the table scraps of film. The producers of Mad Money weren’t disillusioned enough to think that Katie Holmes would be bringing home the little gold man, and no, I’m not talking about Tom Cruise.

If you don’t want to wait until the kids are out of school to see a good movie, there are alternatives to the blockbuster hits and award winners throughout the year.

“January and February are often a great time for foreign and independent films,” said Dr. Richard Neupert, head of Film Studies at the University of Georgia. “Winter seems to be a good season for off-kilter, artsy movies with subtitles.”

Neupert cites the Sundance Film Festival in January and the Cannes Film Festival in May as driving forces behind these types of films’ release dates. The producers of these films mark their deadlines by the festivals and hope for any later release date.

Sometimes these movies actually make it. Juno turned out to be the little indie film that could. Its box office stats, coming in at just under $200 million, were impressive for the genre and writer Diablo Cody even took home the Oscar for best original screenplay.

Spring Break has come and gone and we can finally look forward to the return of great entertainment that comes with the sweltering summer heat. The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull have movie lovers in wholehearted anticipation, and Wall-E is sure to perpetuate the impressive Pixar legacy.

So take this time to study for finals. It will still be a month before The Office returns to the airwaves. Just rest assured that your patience will be rewarded from May through July.

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