Connect with us

Entertainment

If you spend Christmas at the movies, you’re not alone

Published

on

Some American holidays are intrinsically tied to certain traditions. Fourth of July and fireworks shows. Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping. And then there’s Christmas and the movie theater.

Moviegoing may not be the first thing you think of when considering the Christmas season. There are the trees, sure, then the carols, even the cut-out cookies. But going to the movie theater either on Christmas, or in the days surrounding it, has become a cherished holiday tradition for many families.

“On that day, it’s like the movie theater becomes a midnight mass,” said Matthew Germenis, 33, who’s been going to the movies on Christmas since he was a teen. “It’s just something really, really special.”

Germenis isn’t alone. The holiday season has become a massive time for movie theaters and studios. In years past, film franchises like “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” became holiday classics thanks purely to holiday release dates — in 2001, the first Harry Potter film, released just before Thanksgiving, topped the holiday season box office, while “The Fellowship of the Ring” came in at No. 3. The former went on to become the highest grossing movie of the entire year.

In other words: The holiday season, especially the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, pulls thousands of people to cinemas, many in the name of tradition. But exactly how the holiday and moviegoing became so intertwined is, well, a bit of a Christmas miracle.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Entertainment

Even before the LA fires, Californians fled for ‘climate havens’

Published

on

By

Christina Welch still remembers what the sky looked like the day a wildfire came within 2 miles (3.2 km) of her Santa Rosa, California, home.
It was the Tubbs fire of 2017, the most destructive in California history at the time. Ms Welch’s neighbour woke her in the morning, and told her to grab her belongings and get out. When Ms Welch opened the door, ashes were falling from the sky and smoke filled the air.
Then, in 2019, the Kincade wildfire forced her parents to evacuate for five days.
It was the final push for Ms Welch. After advice from a friend, she packed her belongings and drove across the country to her new hometown: Duluth, Minnesota.
“It was just the culmination of all of it,” the 42-year-old said. “There’s only so many times that I was going to go through every fall of worrying about what is going to set on fire, if I was going to lose a house.”
Ms Welch is one of several people who has left California in recent years because of the frequency of extreme weather, even before the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history killed 28 people this month.
Climate change has made the grasses and shrubs that are fuelling the Los Angeles fires more vulnerable to burning, scientists say.
Climate’s ‘whiplash’ linked to raging LA fires
California is naturally prone to fires, but scientists believe that a warming world is increasing the conditions conducive to longer fire seasons and larger burned areas in the western US.
Just this week, a new, fast-moving wildfire broke out in Los Angeles County, north-west of the city, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate a region already reeling from destruction. Trump plans to visit Southern California on Friday to witness the devastation from the blazes.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Would you make a good Traitor? Take our quiz

Published

on

By

The latest series of The Traitors is coming to an end, after weeks of wild accusations, wilder betrayals and Claudia Winkleman’s devious looks-to-camera.
Many of us like to think we could handle the pressures and skullduggery of being a traitor in the remote Scottish castle. But could you really make it to the end undetected?
Work through our scenarios – from sitting at the roundtable with Claudia to rowing across an icy loch – to find out if you’ve got what it takes to be a treacherous mastermind, or whether you are far too faithful for that.
Quiz compiled by: Steven McIntosh, Helen Bushby, Yasmin Rufo, Rosemary McCabe, Jonathan Holmes

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Musical about trans drug boss leads Oscar nominations

Published

on

By

Netflix musical Emilia Pérez leads this year’s Oscars nominations, with Wicked also among the top contenders.
Emilia Pérez, about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, has 13 nominations in total – although one of its stars, Selena Gomez, missed out.
Wicked received 10 nominations – including nods for British actress Cynthia Erivo and her co-star Ariana Grande.
Three-and-a-half-hour epic The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, also has 10 nominations, while Demi Moore has the first Oscar nomination of her career

Continue Reading

Trending