Why do the fairy tales movies always come out in the fall?

[Guitarman]

Ever since “The Little Mermaid”, all of Disney’s fairy tales movies have come out in the fall, usually during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. Here are the release dates:

-“The Little Mermaid” 11/17/89

-“Beauty and the Beast” 11/22/91

-“Aladdin” 11/25/92

-“Enchanted” 11/21/07

-“Tangled” 11/24/10

Now, Disney has not followed this pattern for their non-fairy tale animated films, as movies like “Tarzan”, “Pocahontas” and “Mulan” have come out in the summer. So, why is it that the fairy tales are saved for fall? I imagine Disney wants to have some family-friendly movie ready for the holidays when families are getting together, etc., but I wouldn’t necessarily consider the fairy tales films to be more family-friendly than the non-fairy tales ones. So why is it that these titles are saved for that one particular time of year?

[271286]

Interesting observation. But I no idea why.

[Animaluco90's]

I think that it's all a matter of coincidence. Back in 1994, Disney started releasing her movies in summer because they noticed they were getting strong enough to compete with summer-movies. That's why most of Disney movies released between 1995-2003 were released in the summer. However, in 2003, as Disney's 2D animation movies weren't that sucessful anymore, Disney Movies lost the summer spot to Pixar movies, starting with Finding Nemo and followed by Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E... And that's why Enchanted, PatF and Tangled all came out in thanksgiving.

[toonaspie]

I think that it's all a matter of coincidence. Back in 1994, Disney started releasing her movies in summer because they noticed they were getting strong enough to compete with summer-movies. That's why most of Disney movies released between 1995-2003 were released in the summer. However, in 2003, as Disney's 2D animation movies weren't that sucessful anymore, Disney Movies lost the summer spot to Pixar movies, starting with Finding Nemo and followed by Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E... And that's why Enchanted, PatF and Tangled all came out in thanksgiving.

This is probably the best answer though TPatF actually came out in December which is why it didn't perform as well. Doesn't really explain why Winnie the Pooh was released in July but I guess Disney figure it was gonna underperform anyway.

[Sotiris]

Animaluco90's is right. Now Pixar films are always released in the summer while WDAS' films are released in the fall.

[Semaj]

I think the practice dates back to Snow White.

That film made its premiere during the Christmas season of 1937, and its mainstream release near Valentines' of 1938. Up until the 1970's, a lot of the studio's premieres and re-releases were in February (the reason for that, I don't know). Most of their other releases were either during the summer or near the holiday season.

Also, the very few non-Disney animated features prior to Don Bluth were often released during the summer or holiday season.

[Wonderlicious]

Up until the mid 70s (i.e. before Jaws and Star Wars), I believe that studios tended to release their flagship films mainly around the late autumn and winter months as opposed to summer. That could naturally mean that it was considered profitable to release some films in January and February, nowadays considered a bit of a dead period. I suppose that one could argue that Disney animated films sorta blend in well with winter and the holiday season, what with their generally escapist, whimsical sensibility. As for fairy tales, they have always tended to have an association with the Christmas season for a good century or two (see the English pantomime tradition, for example).

I know in France that premiering Disney films are associated quite a bit with Christmas, and that basically every new Disney animated feature from the 50s up until the early 00s was released during the run-up to Christmas. I believe that a tagline for Enchanted was actually "And what if the Christmas Disney movie became real?".

[Philo & Gunge]

From a marketing standpoint, the fact that Disney would have a movie out parents can take the little ankle-biters to over Thanksgiving and winter break probably makes for perfect timing. I always assumed Lion King coming out in the summer had to do with it's production problems and not so much "it's a big movie" (interestingly, I always felt Pocahontas and Hunchback would have been better suited as holiday movies than summer films as they actually were). The switch back to holiday releases as of late is probably for the best since Pixar is on a summer schedule now, it gives Disney two major animated releases during the two major moviegoing seasons of the year.

[Elladorine]

Wasn't The Lion King originally supposed to be released in the fall of 1993 but was delayed to summer 1994 due to production issues?

From a marketing standpoint, the fact that Disney would have a movie out parents can take the little ankle-biters to over Thanksgiving and winter break probably makes for perfect timing. I always assumed Lion King coming out in the summer had to do with it's production problems and not so much "it's a big movie" (interestingly, I always felt Pocahontas and Hunchback would have been better suited as holiday movies than summer films as they actually were). The switch back to holiday releases as of late is probably for the best since Pixar is on a summer schedule now, it gives Disney two major animated releases during the two major moviegoing seasons of the year.

Honestly, I think it ended up working in Disney's favor that The Lion King was released in the summer. It suited the mood of the film and catered to families seeing it multiple times. I do wonder if both Pocahontas and Hunchback would have done better as holiday releases (different moods for both of those).

[Rose Dome]

They do?



Sorry, I had to!

As for the actual topic, I think that fairy tales suit the whimsy of the end of year celebrations.

They are set in another time and place, much more often than the popcorn movies, and I would say that they are generally more idealistic, which makes them more fitting for that time of the year.

[estefan]

I also seem to recall that Pixar's releases moved to summer, because Steve Jobs wanted the DVDs to come out around the Christmas shopping season.