Dr Alexander Sergeant, Lecturer in Digital Media Production at the University of Westminster, has explained in an article for The Conversation what people want from Christmas movies and where Hollywood is going wrong. The article has also been republished by The Guardian.
In this article Dr Sergeant wrote about the pattern of festive action-movie flops preceding Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s unsuccessful latest Christmas film, Red One. He writes: “Red One is just the latest in a long line of infamous attempts by Hollywood studios to make a spectacular Christmas action film.”
Dr Sergeant emphasises what the failure of Red One tells us about people’s “needs and desires” at Christmas time. He explains: “When we picture our cinematic Christmas routines, I suspect many of us are imagining being surrounded by loved ones, in comfy pyjamas, enjoying a cosy night in […] Going to the cinema, however, is supposed to be spectacular. It is loud, booming, thrilling and visceral. All of that feels a bit intimidating and unnecessary when you’re sitting in your jim-jams with a nice turkey mayo sandwich and cup of tea.”
But he highlights that Hollywood needs to produce cinema hits instead of films for home-watching to bring in money over the festive season and explains that cinemagoers prefer action movies. Therefore, while popular Christmas movies “might be cheesier than a festive baked Camembert” and are loved because they “remind us of the ghosts of Christmas movies past that big film studios seem unable or unwilling to make today”, Hollywood will continue to churn out big action festive films.
Concluding the article, Dr Sergeant suggests that while the movie industry needs to “think hard about the kinds of films it hopes to contribute to the Christmas film tradition in future”, the public must also understand that Hollywood makes movies that will succeed in the cinema rather than just at home.
Dr Sergeant is a film theorist and historian specialising in popular media. He is the Pathway Lead for the Digital Media Production BA Honours programme at Westminster, as well as the Deputy Course Leader for the Film BA Honours course. He writes regularly for The Conversation alongside running the fantasy cinema and animation podcast Fantasy/Animation.
Read the full articles on The Conversation and The Guardian.
Find out more about Media and Communication and Film and Television courses at the University of Westminster.
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