h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is the time of year when the clapped-out old nags and misbegotten runts of the industry get pushed out into an unforgiving world.

I suspect the industry calendar goes something like this:

Summer: blockbusters and event movies for the summer when everyone takes a vacation and has free time to go and see them (and traditionally there's nothing in the news so we can swamp the media with our promotional material.

Autumn: quality releases eager for Oscar recognition. Why Autumn? Any earlier and they'd be forgotten by shortlist time, any later and they wouldn't have time to build up a good bit of Oscar momentum and good word-of-mouth.

Winter: the occasional blockbuster for the festive season but mainly comedies and romances.

Spring: dross, as everyone's preoccupied with last year's award nominees anyway. Slip the garbage out now while nobody's looking.


Sad, isn't it? Of course it's not too bad here in the UK as we get most things a month or two after you, so the quality is more evenly spread (outside of blockbuster season, anyway). I've been spoilt for choice the last few weeks.