Hollywood loves holiday weekends. An extended weekend containing a big holiday is a great time to launch a new release since everyone’s off for the holidays while big franchises can “claim” a certain holiday weekend, like four of the five most recent Star Wars movies bowing just before Christmas to become as much of a seasonal tradition as lighting candles on a menorah or decorating a tree. Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Memorial Day weekend, these special times of the year are go-to destinations for the biggest features of the year, and there seem to always be more holidays for the film industry to claim. In the 21st century, holidays like President’s Day weekend or Easter weekend have grown exponentially more valuable thanks to mega-hit movies like Black Panther or Furious 7, respectively.
Despite this trend, though, there’s still one holiday on the calendar that’s largely been ignored as a potential launchpad for big new movies. Save for the 2021 blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Labor Day weekend has never been a massive supplier of hits. But why? Why is this the one holiday of the year that Hollywood just has no interest in?
One strange part about this is that Labor Day isn’t necessarily a more recent creation compared to other federal holidays. Labor Day has existed since 1882 and became a federal holiday by 1894. By comparison, Halloween is widely considered to be something that originated in the 1840s while Thanksgiving wouldn’t be recognized as a national holiday until 1863. In other words, it’s not like Hollywood’s lack of interest in Labor Day is due to it being less ingrained into the history of America. On the contrary, it emerged around the same era as other holidays that the film industry is all too happy to use as launchpads for massive hits.
Part of the problem, then, comes down to how Labor Day coincides with the end of the Summer. It’s widely perceived as the death knell for the hottest time of the year. This means that one of the most valuable demographics for theatrical moviegoing (teens, kids, and college students) is returning to school. That doesn’t mean nobody belonging to those groups will be going to their local movie theater now that August is history, but in the first weeks of a new semester, school does tend to take precedence. This would mean any new Labor Day release would have to really stand out to not play second-fiddle to the real-world obligations happening around this holiday weekend.
Labor Day weekend has also often been seen as a transition period between the busy summertime and the equally busy autumn season where Oscar-friendly material lies. As moviegoers and studios transition from focusing on Transformers to concentrating on award-season darlings, it’s easy for titles opening over Labor Day weekend to get lost in the shuffle. This is especially true since major film festivals, like the Toronto International Film Festival, can sometimes occur on the days just before Labor Day weekend. As a result, all the hype and buzz may be centered on whatever star-studded movie premiered at this event rather than a movie trying to open over the Labor Day frame.
Returning to the larger non-movie-related factors, Labor Day weekend’s ability to function as a great launchpad for new films is further hurt by how Labor Day isn’t really a celebratory or marketable holiday. For Halloween, there are endless parties you can attend in the name of pumpkins and spooky monsters. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah: those are all connected to big family gatherings. And all of these days, plus other holidays like Valentine’s Day or the 4th of July, are inundated with marketing. You can get cards, front lawn inflatables, and all kinds of other merchandise meant to celebrate these days. With all of this marketing ephemera attached to these holidays, it was inevitable that movies would ride the wave of further cashing in on, say, Christmas or Halloween as a perfect corridor for releasing movies. You’re already just chilling with the family during the December holidays or devoting the day to Halloween, why not spend an hour or two watching a new movie?
But there are no big meals associated with Labor Day. Hallmark doesn’t make cards in honor of this occasion and even Charlie Brown, who dedicated a whole half-hour to Arbor Day, has never done a cartoon special about Labor Day. Part of this can be attributed, fairly or not, to big conglomerates not wanting to highlight a day that’s supposed to be about workers’ rights. Amazon can make merchandise off the true meaning of Christmas without a problem, but if they were to start making Labor Day merch, it would possibly raise awareness about problems with their treatment of labor as well as how other corporations treat their workers. Without a big hullabaloo over Labor Day by big corporations and even everyday people, this holiday weekend just seems less viable as a place to debut big movies.
But nothing speaks to why Hollywood has avoided Labor Day weekend more than the dismal track record of movies launched over this time. Over the years, a handful of hits have debuted over this weekend, such as Jeepers Creepers or the 2007 Halloween remake from Rob Zombie. But in the history of the Labor Day frame, only two movies (Shang-Chi, Halloween) have premiered during this weekend and managed to crack $50 million domestically. Aside from these two movies, Labor Day has been a graveyard for a bevy of flops. Who could forget Feardotcom, Disaster Movie, Kull the Conqueror, or Morgan, among so many others? Fairly or not, Labor Day weekend has become associated with not just subpar genre fare, but the very worst genre fare that an average year of cinema has to offer.
However, in defense of Labor Day weekend, it has proven to be a decent spot to debut certain types of movies. Horror fare, such as The Possession, tends to do decent business here while the production company Pantelion Films, which specializes in titles aimed at Latinx audiences, has debuted several hit movies here, particularly the 2013 comedy Instructions Not Included. The weekend has also proven to be a solid time for certain movies that played in limited release in August to expand into wide release. Features ranging from Searching to The Illusionist to even Fast Times at Ridgemont High have all gone this route and managed to do solid box office numbers.
And then, of course, there’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which opened over Labor Day weekend in 2021, scoring the biggest Labor Day opening in history. Originally, Shang-Chi was supposed to open in February and then July of 2021, before COVID-19 kept delaying it. Eventually, Marvel Studios set a Labor Day bow for the title, seemingly a result of the studio needing to delay this movie but not wanting to further postpone its November and December 2021 titles (Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home, respectively). Labor Day weekend was the only option available in this case, but it turned out to be a great spot for Shang-Chi. Not only did it have a strong opening weekend, but the lack of competition from other blockbusters for the rest of September 2021 led to it scoring a domestic haul just north of $224 million. This made Shang-Chi the biggest movie of 2021 in North America not called Spider-Man: No Way Home. And to think, it accomplished all that while debuting over the same holiday weekend that Apollo 18 called home.
While Shang-Chi doubtlessly was aided by being a Marvel Cinematic Universe title, its incredible success here, as well as the recent massive box office grosses of both It movies (which each debuted just one week after Labor Day weekend) suggest that movies opening in the early weekends of September are not doomed to financial failure. Labor Day weekend 2022 is devoid of any major new titles, but Labor Day 2023 will be heralded by the arrival of The Equalizer 3. If this sequel does business remotely similar to the box office of its predecessors, then we could have another example of Labor Day weekend not being an inherently awful place to launch movies. Granted, Labor Day weekend new releases have a lot of unique obstacles to face that titles opening over other holiday weekends don’t have to deal with. But more and more evidence is mounting that Labor Day openers don’t all have to end up like Feardotcom at the box office.