Why all the lackluster movies in August?
Studios won’t say it aloud, but it’s ‘dump month’
You might call August the dog days of summer, or you might call it back-to-school season. In the movie business, there’s another name for August, though you’ll rarely hear it said aloud.
It’s called “dump month.”
Sandwiched between summer blockbuster season and gold-obsessed awards season, August can be something of a cinematic wasteland. It’s the slot where studios often put subpar movies with major stars (“Elysium,” with Matt Damon in 2013), junky-looking action-flicks like the Jason Statham 2008 vehicle “Death Race,” or kids’ movies too weak for height-of-summer competition (Disney’s “Planes,” from 2013). Generally speaking, savvy moviegoers regard August releases with justifiable skepticism.
“The big studios would never in a million years use this phrase, but they do view it as a dumping ground,” says Dade Hayes, co-author of “Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession.” By August, the summer’s biggest movies have already been released and younger viewers are beginning to turn their attentions to the coming school year, Hayes says. “August has just always been a lazy month.”
That said, there are exceptions that prove the rule. Savvy studios occasionally take advantage of August’s skimpy lineup to introduce offbeat or risky titles that might not have survived in a more crowded month. Examples include 1984’s hard-hitting teen flick “Red Dawn,” the cult comedy “Snakes on a Plane” in 2006 and the South African sci-fi allegory “District 9,” from 2009. August has also seen several bona fide blockbusters, notably last year’s DC comics adaptation “Suicide Squad,” a $745 million worldwide hit.
This August looks like yet another month of question marks. Two titles seem to be making early bids for Academy Award consideration: “The Glass Castle,” starring Woody Harrelson and Oscar-winner Brie Larson as members of a vagabond family, and “Tulip Fever,” starring Alicia Vikander (also an Oscar winner) as a 17th century Danish woman who has an affair. “Logan Lucky,” Steven Soderbergh’s latest heist comedy (starring Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig), has received encouraging early reviews, while the trailer for “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” a buddy comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, has earned some mild buzz.
“The storyline of August this year will be that a lot of July movies will keep doing really well, like ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Girls Trip,’” says Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com, referring to Christopher Nolan’s World War II film and Malcolm D. Lee’s raunchy comedy, respectively. “So even though there won’t be big openers, there should be plenty of July holdover that should do well until Labor Day.”
Trying to remember the last great movie you saw during August?