It's not just you — there really are more low-budget holiday movies this year, with 150 new releases just in the past 2 months
Netflix
- 150 holiday movies have been released since November across TV and streaming, Bloomberg reported.
- Forty of those, more than a quarter, have been from Hallmark.
- An original Christmas movie was one of Netflix's most popular films on Tuesday.
If you've noticed a surge in holiday-themed movies over the last two months, you're on to something.
One hundred-and-fifty Christmas movies have been released across TV networks and streaming services from November through December this year, according to Bloomberg.
Forty of those are from Hallmark — up from 31 last year and 23 in 2020, according to Bloomberg. Twenty-six were released by Lifetime.
The streamers have also heavily embraced low-budget original Christmas movies. As they look to beef up their fourth-quarter slates, the low cost is attractive.
Even HBO Max, whose new parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has pushed back against streaming-first movies, sees the appeal. It released two of them on the same day, November 24 — "Holiday Harmony" and "A Christmas Mystery" — as well as another, "A Hollywood Christmas," on December 1.
Warner Bros. snagged the producer behind the movies, Ali Afshar, to make them for between $3 million and $5 million for HBO Max after the success of his Netflix film, "A California Christmas," he told Bloomberg.
On Tuesday, a new Netflix original movie "I Believe in Santa" — which was also produced by Afshar's company ESX Entertainment — was Netflix's No. 3 most-popular movie in the US, according to the streamer's own daily rankings.
Afshar told Bloomberg that his company is aiming to make 15 movies next year, up to eight of which would be Christmas themed.
Other Netflix original Christmas movies have been popular recently.
"The Noel Diary" premiered as the company's No. 1 movie globally the week it premiered, with 27.6 million hours from November 28 through December 4. Lindsay Lohan's "Falling for Christmas" was the top movie the week of November 14 through November 20.