History Main / DumpMonths

Starting in the 2000s, the second half of August has generally been considered a comparatively minor dump month, and the first half hasn't been at all. Films released at this time are usually put here not out of a lack of quality, but because the "main" blockbuster season has gotten so crowded that smaller films are pushed here out of necessity. After ''Film/RushHour2'' posted one of the best domestic openings ever in early August 2001, studios began to open more blockbusters in the first two weeks of the month. August 2014, for instance, saw the release of ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', which marked the first time an August release was the highest grossing film of the summer domestically since box office was regularly tracked in the 1970s. In addition, August has become a popular release frame for horror films that can't make the October date, since it offers ample time to get them on home video and streaming in time for Halloween without having to compete with the big summer blockbusters,[[note]]This practice owes at least part of its existence to the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' and ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' franchises' bulletproof status in October from the mid '00s through the early '10s.[[/note]] and it's recognized as a great time to release more mature fare aimed at older audiences and women who are burned out from the heat of all the big action movies in the past three months. The unofficial end of the summer season falls sometime in mid-August, give or take a week depending on the year, with one or two final big releases before the drought. However, before UsefulNotes/{{The Blockbuster Age|OfHollywood}} it was considered a dump month like any other -- for example, when Creator/WarnerBros suspected that ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' would fail, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork they dumped it in August]].

Note that the definition of a "dump month" is not static. Historically, while spring, summer, and late fall have always been premium release seasons, January didn't always have its toxic reputation. ''Boston Globe'' film critic Ty Burr [[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/magazine/how-to-survive-januarys-dearth-of-good-movies.html?_r=0 has noted]] that, during [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood the days of the studio system]], January saw far more high-quality releases than it did after, with TheForties serving as the high point for January releases. The antitrust decision ''United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.'' in 1948, forcing the studios to divest their theater chains and end the practice of block booking, meant that movies were no longer guaranteed a long theatrical run at every point in the year, leading studios to cluster their biggest releases around holidays and warmer weather. By TheEighties, with summer blockbusters rising to prominence, the idea of the January leper colony had solidified.

There are some silver linings, however. Valentine's Day weekend is typically a great time to release {{romantic comed|y}}ies and [[ChickFlick female-oriented films]], for obvious reasons, with the occasional ValentinesDayViolence-induced horror films to potentially spice up movie dates. Likewise, teen-oriented films are liable to succeed during this time, largely as counter-programming to the OscarBait and televised sporting events that teens usually aren't as interested in as the adults. Notable examples include ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'', ''Film/WarmBodies'', and ''Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' which for many movie theaters was the busiest day for its Saturday Valentine's Day shows. In addition, critically-acclaimed films such as ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'', ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', ''Film/Deadpool2016'', and ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' have met box office success despite being February releases and ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'', another February release, making a respectable amount of money in spite of appearances and doing better business than it would have had it been released in an already crowded December. ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'' also outgrossed ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu''[='=]s opening weekend despite being shunted to February as punishment for its initial "sleep paralysis demon" design of Sonic not going over well at all with audiences, and did better business than it would've if both Sonic's initial design and the original holiday season release date had been left as is. January is also a month where leftovers from the OscarBait season see wide release, such as ''Film/HiddenFigures'' and ''Film/PatriotsDay''.

This time period is obvious -- it's the end of the SummerBlockbuster season and the kiddies are heading back into school, and the studios are saving family films and prestige pictures for the holiday season (UsefulNotes/{{Thanksgiving|Day}}, UsefulNotes/{{Christmas|InAmerica}}, and [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscars]]) and their biggest {{horror}} films for [[UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve October]]. Plus, many families use UsefulNotes/{{Labor Day|InTheUnitedStates}} weekend (the big holiday during this time) for vacations, barbecues, and watching [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball the start of the football season]], keeping them away from the theaters and making it one of the smallest weekends for the box office all year.

The first two months of the year are past the cutoff date for UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations but before the actual ceremony,[[note]]The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) requires a release in a Los Angeles County theater before midnight on December 31 for a film to be eligible. For the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDocumentaryFeature Best Documentary Feature]] award, AMPAS requires releases in ''both'' Los Angeles County ''and'' New York City in the same period. The Academy Awards themselves have been presented at (depending on the year) either the end of February or the beginning of March since 2004; before then, the ceremony was held in either late March or in April.[[/note]] meaning that all the big 'prestige' pictures have been released and are expanding into wider markets as part of the Oscar campaign. Studios don't want to cannibalize their own films, especially their best films (or at least, their [[OscarBait most Oscar-oriented films]]), so they stock the new release schedule for the next two months mostly with films that were dirt-cheap to produce and get little advertising.

-->"Aw, man. Summer's almost over. And there were really only [[SummerBlockbuster a few truly great summer movies]] this year. And a lot of kinda disappointing ones. Some ''really'' crappy ones. Now all I've got to look forward to are the big wasteland of movies that aren't classy enough to come out for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] season or aren't exciting enough to come out in summer. Ugh. This is always so depressing."

Starting in the 2000s, the second half of August has generally been considered a comparatively minor dump month, and the first half hasn't been at all. Films released at this time are usually put here not out of a lack of quality, but because the "main" blockbuster season has gotten so crowded that smaller films are pushed here out of necessity. After ''Film/RushHour2'' posted one of the best domestic openings ever in early August 2001, studios began to open more blockbusters in the first two weeks of the month. August 2014, for instance, saw the release of ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', which marked the first time an August release was the highest grossing film of the summer domestically since box office was regularly tracked in the 1970s. In addition, August has become a popular release frame for horror films that can't make the October date, since it offers ample time to get the DVD in stores in time for Halloween without having to compete with the big summer blockbusters,[[note]]This practice owes at least part of its existence to the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' and ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' franchises' bulletproof status in October from the mid '00s through the early '10s.[[/note]] and it's recognized as a great time to release more mature fare aimed at older audiences and women who are burned out from the heat of all the big action movies in the past three months. The unofficial end of the summer season falls sometime in mid-August, give or take a week depending on the year, with one or two final big releases before the drought. However, before UsefulNotes/{{The Blockbuster Age|OfHollywood}} it was considered a dump month like any other -- for example, when Creator/WarnerBros suspected that ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' would fail, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork they dumped it in August]].

On top of this, winter in the U.S. is a time when several large cities at once can easily be shut down by a large snowstorm, greatly lowering movie theater revenue. This is especially known to happen in the densely-populated Northeast and Midwest, and in most of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} outside ''maybe'' UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}. Furthermore, the two main [[UsefulNotes/AmericanHolidays U.S. holiday weekends]] during this time, Martin Luther King Day and Presidents' Day, aren't universally celebrated as days off, so a big-budget release would be wasted in these months without three days of dependable box office returns. Lastly, sporting events are a major draw on every weekend, with the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] entering its postseason, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]], the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]], and NCAA college UsefulNotes/{{basketball}} in the middle of their regular seasons,[[note]][[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Major League Baseball]] is the only one of America's 'big four' sports leagues that plays predominantly in the summer as opposed to late fall and winter.[[/note]] and UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} holding its season opener and biggest event, the Daytona 500, during Presidents' Day weekend. The UsefulNotes/SuperBowl in particular effectively turns a weekend in February (currently the second, the one before Presidents' Day) into a dead zone, as the game draws most of the nation's attention towards their televisions and away from theaters.

On the other hand, September is also host to several film festivals, and marks the unofficial start to the race for the big awards. The Venice, Telluride and Toronto International Film Festivals, where many studios first debut their prestige pictures, are all held in September. However, most of these films don't see wide release (i.e. outside UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}} and UsefulNotes/LosAngeles) until later months, meaning that, for the average, non-cinephile moviegoer living in the suburbs of EverytownAmerica, the only new movies worth watching in September are whatever they didn't catch from the summer, or whatever is available on demand.

While the second half of August is generally considered a comparatively minor dump month, and the first half isn't at all. Films released at this time are usually put here not out of a lack of quality, but because the "main" blockbuster season has gotten so crowded that smaller films are pushed here out of necessity. After ''Film/RushHour2'' posted one of the best domestic openings ever in early August 2001, studios began to open more blockbusters in the first two weeks of the month. August 2014, for instance, saw the release of ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', which marked the first time an August release was the highest grossing film of the summer domestically since box office was regularly tracked in the 1970s. In addition, August has become a popular release frame for horror films that can't make the October date, since it offers ample time to get the DVD in stores in time for Halloween without having to compete with the big summer blockbusters,[[note]]This practice owes at least part of its existence to the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' and ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' franchises' bulletproof status in October from the mid '00s through the early '10s.[[/note]] and it's also recognized as a great time to release more mature fare aimed at older audiences and women who are burned out from the heat of all the big action movies in the past three months. The unofficial end of the summer season falls sometime in mid-August, give or take a week depending on the year, with one or two final big releases before the drought. However, before UsefulNotes/{{The Blockbuster Age|OfHollywood}} it was considered a dump month like any other -- for example, when Creator/WarnerBros suspected that ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' would fail, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork they dumped it in August]].

While the second half of August is generally considered a comparatively minor dump month, and the first half isn't at all. Films released at this time are usually put here not out of a lack of quality, but because the "main" blockbuster season has gotten so crowded that smaller films are pushed here out of necessity. After ''Film/RushHour2'' posted one of the best domestic openings ever in early August 2001, studios began to open more blockbusters in the slot. August 2014, for instance, saw the release of ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', which marked the first time an August release was the highest grossing film of the summer since box office was regularly tracked in the 1970s. In addition, August has become a popular release frame for horror films that can't make the October date, since it offers ample time to get the DVD in stores in time for Halloween without having to compete with the big summer blockbusters,[[note]]This practice owes at least part of its existence to the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' and ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' franchises' bulletproof status in October from the mid '00s through the early '10s.[[/note]] and it's also recognized as a great time to release more mature fare aimed at older audiences and women who are burned out from the heat of all the big action movies in the past three months. The unofficial end of the summer season falls sometime in mid-August, give or take a week depending on the year, with one or two final big releases before the drought. However, before UsefulNotes/{{The Blockbuster Age|OfHollywood}} it was considered a dump month like any other -- for example, when Creator/WarnerBros suspected that ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' would fail, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork they dumped it in August]].

Beginning with the 2010s, the second half of August is generally considered a comparatively minor dump month, and the first half isn't at all. Films released at this time are usually put here not out of a lack of quality, but because the "main" blockbuster season has gotten so crowded that smaller films are pushed here out of necessity. August 2014, for instance, saw the release of ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', which marked the first time an August release was the highest grossing of the summer since box office was regularly tracked in the 1970s, and ''[[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', which was also a modest success. In addition, August has become a popular release frame for horror films that can't make the October date, since it offers ample time to get the DVD in stores in time for Halloween without having to compete with the big summer blockbusters,[[note]]This practice owes at least part of its existence to the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' and ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' franchises' bulletproof status in October from the mid '00s through the early '10s.[[/note]] and it's also recognized as a great time to release more mature fare aimed at older audiences and women who are burned out from the heat of all the big action movies in the past three months. The unofficial end of the summer season falls sometime in mid-August, give or take a week depending on the year, with one or two final big releases before the drought. However, before UsefulNotes/{{The Blockbuster Age|OfHollywood}} it was considered a dump month like any other -- for example, when Creator/WarnerBros suspected that ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' would fail, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork they dumped it in August]].

The big-screen version of the FridayNightDeathSlot, the Dump Months are certain months of the year that are viewed as, effectively, cinematic landfills where little of value can be found at the box office. [[TroubledProduction Disastrous productions]] that the studio wants to get behind them as quickly as possible with minimal fallout, low-budget genre fare that can't hang with [[SummerBlockbuster the big boys of summer]], star vehicles for [[WhiteDwarfStarlet fading stars]], [[BMovie B-grade]] thrillers and comedies that aren't ''quite'' bad enough to be shuffled into the DirectToVideo netherrealm, films that got [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Screwed by the Studio]] and are only getting released theatrically out of contractual obligation (or because somebody involved with the film has dirt on a studio executive) -- all of this goes to the dump months to be forgotten about by the time they come out on home video and streaming and start airing late at night on cable three months later.

In North America, at least, there are two dump "seasons" -- late summer (August and September), and winter (January, February, and sometimes early March).
* '''August and September''' are obvious -- it's the end of the SummerBlockbuster season and the kiddies are heading back into school, and the studios are saving family films and prestige pictures for the holiday season (UsefulNotes/{{Thanksgiving|Day}}, UsefulNotes/{{Christmas|InAmerica}}, and [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscars]]) and their biggest {{horror}} films for [[UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve October]]. Plus, many families use UsefulNotes/{{Labor Day|InTheUnitedStates}} weekend (the big holiday during this time) for vacations, barbecues, and watching [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball the start of the football season]], keeping them away from the theaters and making it one of the smallest weekends for the box office all year.\\
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On the other hand, September is also host to several film festivals, and marks the unofficial start to the race for the big awards. The Venice, Telluride and Toronto International Film Festivals, where many studios first debut their prestige pictures, are all held in September. However, most of these films don't see wide release (i.e. outside UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}} and UsefulNotes/LosAngeles) until later months, meaning that, for the average, non-cinephile moviegoer living in the suburbs of EverytownAmerica, the only new movies worth watching in September are whatever they didn't catch from the summer, or whatever is available on demand.\\
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Nowadays, the second half of August is generally considered a comparatively minor dump month, and the first half isn't at all. Films released at this time are usually put here not out of a lack of quality, but because the "main" blockbuster season has gotten so crowded that smaller films are pushed here out of necessity. August 2014, for instance, saw the release of ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', which marked the first time an August release was the highest grossing of the summer since box office was regularly tracked in the 1970s, and ''[[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', which was also a modest success. In addition, August has become a popular release frame for horror films that can't make the October date, since it offers ample time to get the DVD in stores in time for Halloween without having to compete with the big summer blockbusters,[[note]]This practice owes at least part of its existence to the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' and ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' franchises' bulletproof status in October from the mid '00s through the early '10s.[[/note]] and it's also recognized as a great time to release more mature fare aimed at older audiences and women who are burned out from the heat of all the big action movies in the past three months. The unofficial end of the summer season falls sometime in mid-August, give or take a week depending on the year, with one or two final big releases before the drought. However, before UsefulNotes/{{The Blockbuster Age|OfHollywood}} it was considered a dump month like any other -- for example, when Creator/WarnerBros suspected that ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' would fail, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork they dumped it in August]].

* '''January and February''', meanwhile, are past the cutoff date for UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations but before the actual ceremony,[[note]]The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) requires a release in a Los Angeles County theater before midnight on December 31 for a film to be eligible. For the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDocumentaryFeature Best Documentary Feature]] award, AMPAS requires releases in ''both Los Angeles County '''and''' New York City'' in the same period. The Academy Awards themselves have been presented at (depending on the year) either the end of February or the beginning of March since 2004; before then, the ceremony was held in either late March or in April.[[/note]] meaning that all the big 'prestige' pictures have been released and are expanding into wider markets as part of the Oscar campaign. Studios don't want to cannibalize their own films, especially their best films (or at least, their [[OscarBait most Oscar-oriented films]]), so they stock the new release schedule for the next two months mostly with films that were dirt-cheap to produce and get little advertising.\\
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On top of this, winter in the U.S. is a time when several large cities at once can easily be shut down by a large snowstorm, greatly lowering movie theater revenue. This is especially known to happen in the densely-populated Northeast and Midwest, and in most of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} outside ''maybe'' UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}. Furthermore, the two main [[UsefulNotes/AmericanHolidays U.S. holiday weekends]] during this time, Martin Luther King Day and Presidents' Day, aren't universally celebrated as days off, so a big-budget release would be wasted in these months without three days of dependable box office returns. Lastly, sporting events are a major draw on every weekend, with the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] entering its postseason, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]], the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]], and NCAA college UsefulNotes/{{basketball}} in the middle of their regular seasons,[[note]][[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Major League Baseball]] is the only one of America's 'big four' sports leagues that plays predominantly in the summer as opposed to late fall and winter.[[/note]] and UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} holding its season opener and biggest event, the Daytona 500, during Presidents' Day weekend. The UsefulNotes/SuperBowl in particular effectively turns a weekend in February (currently the second, the one before Presidents' Day) into a dead zone, as the game draws most of the nation's attention towards their televisions and away from theaters.\\
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There are some silver linings, however. Valentine's Day weekend is typically a great time to release {{romantic comed|y}}ies and [[ChickFlick female-oriented films]], for obvious reasons, with the occasional ValentinesDayViolence-induced horror films to potentially spice up movie dates. Likewise, teen-oriented films are liable to succeed during this time, largely as counter-programming to the OscarBait and televised sporting events that teens usually aren't as interested in as the adults. Notable examples include ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'', ''Film/WarmBodies'', and ''Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' which for many movie theaters was the busiest day for its Saturday Valentine's Day shows. In addition, critically-acclaimed films such as ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'', ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', ''Film/Deadpool2016'', and ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' have met box office success despite being February releases and ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'', another February release, making a respectable amount of money in spite of appearances and doing better business than it would have had it been released in an already crowded December. ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'' also outgrossed ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu''[='=]s opening weekend despite being shunted to February as punishment for its initial "sleep paralysis demon" design of Sonic not going over well at all with audiences, and did better business than it would've if both Sonic's initial design and the original holiday season release date had been left as is. January is also a month where leftovers from the OscarBait season see wide release, such as ''Film/HiddenFigures'' and ''Film/PatriotsDay''.\\
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The 'winter dump season' typically ends sometime in March. March and April serve as a buffer of sorts between the winter wasteland and the SummerBlockbuster season, offering up lighter fare than the summer yet better quality than the winter as spring break and Easter provide open weeks for families, teenagers, and college kids to go to the movies. Movies that did well at that year's Oscars will often linger for a couple of weeks to do a victory lap as people decide to check out why they won, but as the 'losers' from the Oscars fade out of sight, studios start bringing out their first really big movies of the year. The move of the Oscar ceremony to late February starting in 2004, together with the success of ''Film/ThreeHundred'' in 2007, arguably established the precedent of releasing big movies in March, and since then at least one or two second-tier blockbusters sees release during this month, one of the most notable films being ''Film/TheHungerGames'' (which was number one at the box office for four weeks and one of the biggest hits of 2012).