To everything there is a (longer) season
“The Polar Express,” a heartwarming tale about a doubting child’s search for Santa, rolled into theaters a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. As movie release dates go, it was late to the Christmas dance. “Surviving Christmas,” an alleged comedy starring Ben Affleck and James Gandolfini, opened before Halloween.
Christmas didn’t come early just at movie theaters. In mid-October, while leaves were still turning in New England, Target’s aisles began showing red and green. The day after Thanksgiving had been regarded as the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season, but by the stroke of midnight on Halloween, most big retailers had stored their obligatory spooky displays in favor of Santa, reindeer and Christmas trees.
It’s been said that Los Angeles has only one season, and if there is in fact more than that, it takes the keenest eye to detect the subtle changes. Increasingly, the same could be said about many of the major touchstones of American culture.
Not only in the world of commerce, but also in sports, movies, even the news, traditionally discrete periods that could claim a clear beginning and end have now blurred into ever lengthening, often overlapping seasons. For example, the summer blockbuster season once opened Memorial Day and finished up by Labor Day. Now these mega-bucket popcorn movies can debut in April, and by the time it’s all over we’re practically in Oscar season, which lasts until the awards are given out (thankfully a month earlier now than in the past).
Presidential election cycles are running longer as well. Decades ago, intense media coverage would begin about a year before election day. More recently it became years. Now, judging by the pundits who watched Sen. John Edwards’ postelection concession speech, we’re already into the 2008 race.
Lengthening seasons has meant that baseball now cuts into football, which cuts into basketball (and hockey when there’s not a labor dispute), which, to complete the circle, cuts into baseball. The Super Bowl, the nation’s most hyped annual sporting event, used to be played in mid-January; now it’s in early February.
“Nobody is twisting anybody’s arm here,” said Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television who tracks pop culture trends. “I’m sure if they find a way to extend the football season until June, there’ll be plenty of people watching. If you’re someone who is into these events, you’re getting more of what you love. If you’re not, it’s pretty annoying.”
Actually, even those who revel in the seasons can still be bothered by the growing practice of milking events for every last drop of appeal. It’s almost a cliche for Christmas shoppers to lament the earlier-than-ever overnight appearance of stores’ holiday decorations.
“Consumers are irritated,” said Amanda Nicholson, an assistant professor of retail management and consumer studies at Syracuse University in upstate New York. “But I still don’t think the irritation quotient is enough to outweigh potential sales.”
Indeed, many of the area’s malls were packed on the weekends before Thanksgiving. In fact, we may have the “pre-marketing” of Christmas to thank for the overall societal trend of elongating seasons.
Retailers pioneered the idea of pushing back the holiday shopping season a few days, until now it’s threatening to kick off before Halloween.
While businesses such as sports or movies may enhance profit by stretching out a season, many times retailers depend on their best sales period -- Christmas -- to survive. Holiday sales can account for as much as a third of their annual sales.
“Retailers have always been desperate to kick off the season as early as they can,” Nicholson said. “That’s why we’re seeing Christmas catalogs falling in September now.”
The pre-marketing strategy worked, and gradually other industries began to imitate the practice.
The movie business once sandwiched its blockbusters between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Then, with the field getting more crowded in recent years and second-week business dropping 60% or more, the season expanded.
“There are only so many weekends a film can open,” said Tom O’Neil, author of “Movie Awards: The Ultimate, Unofficial Guide to the Oscars, Golden Globes, Critics, Guild & Indie Honors.” “They have to spread out so they can make their money.”
Lifestyle changes have also cleared a path for tinkering with traditional seasons.
Just as viewers are more willing to give a new show a look during the summer -- once a viewing graveyard of reruns -- so too are audiences more open to taking in a traditional summer movie in the fall.
“The success of ‘Shark Tale,’ which I would consider a summer movie, shows it can work,” O’Neil said. “The old calendar is becoming worthless.”
The trend ends when people no longer swallow what’s being served, some observers have noted.
But we’re a long way off from that point, they said.
“I can’t see anything stopping it,” Nicholson said. “Nordstrom’s biggest and most successful sale of the year is in early July. It’s bedlam in those stores, and it’s a fall sale.”
Soon you may not have to wait for next season, because it will always be here.
