Image: Hot Frosty, Netflix
Holiday movies are a staple of each year’s movie release calendar. Predictable seasonal demand for this type of content presents an opportunity for streamers to capitalize on. Even though holiday movies may only be relevant for a brief window of time at the end of the year, they still have the power to deliver financial results for these platforms. With Parrot Analytics’ Streaming Economics system we can quantify the value of these movies to the global streaming industry.
The revenue generated by holiday movies for major streamers in Q4 has increased every year from 2021 to 2023. These movies contributed $132M in global revenue to major streamers in Q4 2023, up from $121M in Q4 2022 and $90M in Q4 2021. We haven’t yet wrapped up this year’s holiday season, but if trends continue and with a growing pool of streaming revenue across platforms, we anticipate that Santa will be bringing an even bigger gift for streamers this year.
So far this month, holiday movies have overperformed across streaming platforms, driving a larger share of demand than the supply share they account for. Even though this may be an unsurprising result during the one month these movies were made for, some platforms appear to be more effectively tapping into seasonal demand for holiday content than others. The two standouts in this regard are Max and Peacock. On both platforms over 7% of demand for their on-platform movies was for a holiday movie.
These platforms’ holiday catalogs are stacked with classic Christmas blockbusters. On Max “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “Elf,” and “A Christmas Story” are among the most in-demand while Peacock has “The Grinch” and “Die Hard.” Much of the streaming revenue attributable to holiday movies is driven by classic movies like these which consistently dominate the most in-demand holiday movies each year. That is the real prize worth chasing when it comes to holiday movies - predictably bankable content that delivers financial returns every year.
Amazon Prime Video has had good success with holiday movies this season. Under 2% of its movie catalog was made up of holiday movies but these drove over 5% of demand for movies on the platform. This overperformance is in part thanks to the success of “Red One” which is looking like the breakout new holiday movie of the year. Ultimate success for this movie will come down to whether audiences come back and watch it in years to come and elevate it to the pantheon of annually rewatchable holiday classics.
