18 Dec The Magic Behind The Success of Hallmark Christmas Movies
This year, Hallmark channel is rolling out 33 original Christmas movies. Although Hallmark is not a high grossing channel, they have a genius way of increasing revenue around the holidays. The company’s formula allows it to crank out movies in three weeks for around $2 million each, and advertisers and viewers are drawn in because they know exactly what they are going to get.
Right now, people are canceling cable subscriptions and ditching live TV for Netflix, Amazon and other streaming apps. While cable networks are struggling, Hallmark is doing surprisingly well. In 2016 Hallmark movies attracted over 2 million live viewers, and by November and December those numbers spiked to 4 million. It seems that this idea started with ABC Family kicking off its “25 Days of Christmas” franchise. In 2011 ABC Family started targeting teens and Hallmark went after Christmas in a bigger way. Now Hallmark not only produces movies for Christmas but Valentines Day, autumn, June weddings and summer holidays.
Hallmark shoots mostly in Canada where they get tax breaks and other benefits from using local production crews, and while the timing is often tight, it works magically. It has been estimated that Hallmark reeled in $431.3 million in revenue from using their formula:
- Low budget
- Short production
- Familiar faces
These movies also include every aspect of the Holidays that we love such as snow, mistletoe, holiday cheer, hot chocolate, and yes even Santa Clause. Even though these movies might seem to be something that your grandma is only watching, there is now even a cult following to the Hallmark channel around Christmas. With drinking games, holiday parties, and small theatre screenings: they have even ironically taken over colleges.
Any Holiday production is destined to do well in the US, where Christmas is such a huge part of our culture and steeped deeply in our consumer habits. When it comes to the people that stand behind the finished product, it takes skill, expertise and an eye for detail. Here at Berning Productions, we have the total package to produce award-winning Holiday productions.
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