10 Classic Christmas Films That Actually Came Out In The Summer
1. Miracle On 34th Street
An incontrovertible Christmas classic, as festive as it gets and nearly universally beloved, there should be no other time for A Miracle On 34th Street's beautiful evocation of the magic of Christmas than right now in the midst of the holiday season.
That, however, was not the opinion back in 1947 of Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck. Zanuck insisted that more people go to the movies in warmer weather. This left the studio's marketing having desperately to cover up that the whole point of the movie was the belief in Santa Claus, selling it instead as a non-seasonal romance between Maureen O'Hara's department store worker and John Payne's lawyer.
Miracle was released in May 1947, to some extent confirming Zanuck's view by proving a smash hit and multiple Oscar winner. But future home releases, TV schedulers, and the 1994 remake starring Richard Attenborough have all decided that it really belongs in December. And quite right too.
Miracle On 34th Street proves more than any other film that, whenever their studios originally imagined them in their release schedules, these are not and never will be summer blockbusters, but always Christmas classics.