It’s that time of year again! “Home Alone”, “Elf”, “It’s A Wonderful Life”, and seventeen versions of “A Christmas Carol”… Who doesn’t love sitting around the fire and watching a great Christmas movie?
As a viewer, I love Christmas movies! But as an independent producer and financier, receiving Christmas-themed scripts from emerging screenwriters and their managers is a less pleasant experience.
OK... I don't really "hate" Christmas movie scripts. Every year I receive a ton of these, and it breaks my heart to see amazing and talented screenwriters putting so much time and passion into something that is so tough to get financed and produced.
Understanding The Process
Now, I’m NOT here to tell screenwriters what they should or shouldn’t write about. But I do believe that emerging and first-time screenwriters trying to break into the industry should beware the Christmas script, and should think very carefully about what they’re spending their time on and set their expectations at realistic levels.
Over the years, I have seen so many screenwriters experience heartbreak over their scripts because nobody has told them the reality of how film production and financing works. I have even had to explain this stuff to managers and - incredibly - development execs who had actually been encouraging writers to spend their time on these kinds of projects with no idea of how producers and investors view them.
So I promise, this is not just me being a mix of Scrooge and The Grinch. I’m on your side! But I don’t want to see you waste your time or get bad advice. There’s a pretty solid business reason behind this attitude, one that I learnt the hard way, and that every screenwriter (and manager and development executive) should be aware of.
Why Are Christmas Scripts Tough?
It all comes down to distribution windows.
Holiday movies are, by their nature, incredibly time-specific. Nobody wants to see a Christmas movie in July. A Christmas movie only really has one distribution window: it needs to be released some time between mid-November and December 25th.
That’s a period of about five weeks to slot into - not easy! Unlike most other films, which can be released pretty much any time throughout the year, if your Christmas film misses that one golden window, it’ll have to wait at least another year to be released, if it gets released at all.
And that, unfortunately, can be the kiss of death for your project.
A Pressurized Timeline
You need to work backwards. If your Christmas movie is to be released between mid-November (ideally after Thanksgiving in the US) and December 25th, many things need to happen in the months leading up to it.
For example, the marketing campaigns often take months to put together and execute, not to mention gathering the materials, making local dubs if necessary, conducting press junkets, and everything else that goes into releasing a film. A lot needs to happen in advance.
This inflexible schedule creates a huge potential headache for producers and financiers. The film must be delivered and have a distribution deal in place by late summer to have a shot at being ready for that one release window. This makes the timeline for a Christmas movie - its production and its release - far tighter and more pressurized than for any other kind of film.
If there are any delays or problems at all, the film might miss its release date, and rescheduling is not as simple as it is with most other kinds of content. And as we all know, there is a lot that can go wrong in the production process...
International Sales
This highly-pressurized timeline becomes even more significant when considering international sales, which form an important source of recoupment for any movie and its investors.
These sales usually take place at the big international sales markets, and while you may make some pre-sales if you have a great cast, you'll often need to screen the finished film before you can start closing the majority of territories around the world.
If you’re looking for a sales agent to sell your Christmas film, you really need them to be making those sales at Berlin in February or at Cannes in May for a December release. You might get away with some sales in Toronto in September if it’s a home video or TV release that doesn’t require a lot of marketing. But AFM in November? Forget it. It’s too late.
Suddenly, the production company’s timeline to deliver this movie takes on even greater pressure. That late summer deadline has now been pushed back several months to be ready for Berlin or Cannes. You basically have to plan at least a year in advance.
But if you miss Cannes this year, you can just hold it back and sell it next year instead, right? Well, not really, or not on a practical level anyway.
You see, distributors want what’s new and fresh. They want this year’s movie, not last year’s, even if it hasn’t been released yet. They want the actors to look like they do on-screen when they’re promoting it. They don’t want actors sitting in a press junket trying to remember anecdotes from shooting nearly two years earlier. Everybody will have moved on by then, careers will have changed. The actors might not be as hot as they were a couple of years earlier when they were cast. Something might have happened in their personal lives.
There’s always the risk that a project will lose its relevance, as well as its value in a continually-shifting market. That could make it significantly less attractive to distributors in future markets.
Financing Pressure
And what about your financiers and investors? The strict timeline affects them as well, and increases their risk dramatically.
If you meet your schedule, that’s great! But if you miss that vital Berlin or Cannes sales market, you could have a real problem. The financiers and investors thought their money was going to be out for one year... but now it’s out for two. That’s not going to make them happy.
What if the producers had taken out gap financing against foreign sales? They might have had a fifteen-month term which has now been increased by another six or twelve months as they wait for the next markets to roll around.
That’s a lot of additional interest and late penalty fees to add to the financing which could actually cripple the project. Nobody is likely to see any profits for a long time (if ever) with that kind of debt piled up on a movie’s financing.
Savvy investors know this, and many of them will be unwilling to take such a large risk on a movie with that tight a schedule.
One Chance
Even if you make a few decent sales at the right market, there are still risks if you only sell a few territories but don’t sell as many as you had hoped for. If a couple of territories buy the movie and release it at Christmas, that timestamps the movie forever. Rather than help the movie, it could actually kill its chances of ever making its money back.
Why? Because once it has been released theatrically in a few countries one Christmas, it is extremely unlikely that distributors in other countries will want to give it a splashy release as a “new” film the following Christmas a year later.
By that point it will be old news, having already been out on home video and screened on TV or streaming platforms in those original territories.
If the film misses its original window to be sold theatrically in any other countries, it may never see the light of day there unless it is acquired for a much lower price as a throwaway streaming or home video title. There will be newer Christmas movies that had been finished in the same year, and distributors will likely prefer these over a title that has already been released a year earlier in other territories.
A Christmas movie basically has one chance to sell well around the world, a feat that most indie movies rarely achieve. Even very successful indie films often need several markets over the course of a year or two to sell out in every territory. It puts tremendous pressure on a Christmas movie to do it in just two markets.
So all in all, it’s an incredible risk for an independent financier and production company, especially without some kind of distribution deal already in place, which is pretty rare in the current market.
Practical Implications
I learnt all this the hard way. I love Christmas movies, and jumped headfirst into a couple that I was keen to be a part of earlier in my career as a producer. Big mistake. Without a distribution deal already in place, I found the experience just too difficult.
Unless a production company has an output deal with a studio or distributor that can guarantee them the necessary release slots around Christmas before the film is even produced, the risk is often too great.
Even then, such a distribution deal usually only covers one territory. If the recoupment plan for financiers and investors relies on international distribution (as is usually the case), you’re still taking on all the additional risk we just discussed.
Competing With The Big Boys
And when everything does finally fall into place, there’s another factor to consider: every Christmas, practically every studio and TV network has their own slate of Christmas content, often with huge budgets and big name talent. This will all be released during the exact same window, usually targeting the same audience. It’s incredibly difficult for any indie movie to compete with that, however original or quirky the idea might be.
Sales agents know this, and so do distributors. That’s why Christmas movies are a tough sell for them even before they’ve read the script or looked at the cast. Unfortunately, many producers and investors (myself included) have only found this out the hard way.
So, with a heavy heart, I’ve learnt from experience that independent Christmas movies tend to be extremely tough to get made, and I’d much rather watch one than work on one.
But More Platforms Mean More Opportunities For Screenwriters, Right?
As a writer, perhaps you’re thinking that there are soooooo many Christmas movies out there - not just in theaters, but on streaming platforms and TV networks as well - that this should increase the chances of someone picking yours up… right?
It’s possible! In this game, there are no rules, and I’d love to see you and your Christmas script succeed. It’s always worth giving it a try. It can happen!
But be warned: from my experience, it’s very tough for an emerging screenwriter to kick their career off with a Christmas movie.
You see, even these studios and networks - whether it’s Netflix or Lifetime, or anyone else - only have a limited number of release slots (as well as production budgets, marketing resources, and more) for these kinds of films.
They also have the same scheduling concerns as those outlined above, even if they have to worry less about international sales and gap financing to greenlight a movie. They still have incredibly tight timelines and are under ton of pressure to deliver what they need, on time and on budget.
From my experience, this usually means that they will work with tried and trusted screenwriters who have a track record of turning around drafts quickly and efficiently without the need for lots of rounds of notes which can drag on for months and push their schedules back. They're the big boys after all, and they have the budgets to pay for the best and most experienced writers.
They are generally unwilling to take a chance on an unproven screenwriter who may not be able to deliver the drafts they need on time. They cannot afford for any delays at all. Even a few extra weeks could ruin their entire schedule.
That makes it a difficult arena for first-time screenwriters to break into. Even a great idea might get taken over by a more experienced writer to do the later drafts and edits.
What Does This Mean For You As A Writer?
Look, I get it. We all grew up watching Christmas movies, and many of our most magical memories come from the holiday films we watched as kids with our families. Nothing beats that sense of nostalgia, so it’s normal for writers to feel inspired to re-create that.
That’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s wonderful, and I actively encourage it. Write your Christmas script. I mean it! I never discourage anyone from writing what they believe in. That passion will always shine through in a script and raise the quality, no matter what the subject matter.
And if nothing else, that Christmas script may turn out to be some of your best work and provide the perfect writing sample to get you a manager, some paid gigs, and launch your career that way.
This is a business where you might have that one connection that can help you, where you can be in the right place at the right time and, the next thing you know, your Christmas movie is out there on the big screen. That’s the beauty of this industry - anything can happen!
My only advice to emerging screenwriters would be to bear in mind the reality of how content gets reviewed, selected, financed, produced, and distributed.
Christmas scripts are rarely breakouts for writers. So, if you’re working on one, make sure that your Christmas script isn’t the only spec that you’re taking out, especially if you’re an unproduced screenwriter.
You can spend a lot of time, effort, and energy on a script that it is extremely tough for most producers to get made, however good it might be. I hate to see that happen!
If this is your passion project, then go for it! Just be sure to have a few other scripts and ideas up your sleeve as well when pitching to managers and producers to give yourself the best possible chance of success, especially if you haven't had anything produced yet.
Ricky Margolis has over 15 years' experience in the entertainment industry, and has been involved in the finance, development, production, and/or distribution of over 30 titles.
If you'd like to learn more about how you can use the sales & distribution process to get your projects financed and produced as described in this article, his book "How The Hell... Do I Get My Film Financed? Book Two: Sales & Distribution" by clicking here.
Check out his latest book "How The Hell... Do I Get My Film Financed: An Introduction To Film And TV Financing" - now available for just 99¢. Click here to learn more about how you can use this process to help get YOUR next film or TV project financed and into production!
To see all the books in our series "How The Hell... Do I Get My Film Financed?" on film & TV finance and production, please click here.
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