Why Holiday Movies Are Streaming Stars

The films’ modest budgets and replayability have made them a favorite of video services

- James E. Ellis

On the evening of Nov. 16, a corner of the Warner Bros. studio lot was festooned with string lights and tinsel hanging above tables lined with chocolate fountains and gingerbread cookies. Santa Claus asked children if they’d been naughty or nice while a red carpet, flanked by two Christmas trees, welcomed stars of the three movies that premiered that night: A Christmas Mystery, Holiday Harmony and A Hollywood Christmas.

It’s not the sort of fare Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., which manages multibillion-dollar franchises such as Batman and Game of Thrones, is typically known for. Each holiday film was produced on a shoestring budget of $3 million to $5 million for HBO Max, the company’s streaming service, by the professional race-car driver Ali Afshar. But they’re part of an increasingly crucial genre for Hollywood as studios navigate the Age of the Binge heralded by Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other platforms.

Alongside the Christmas classics of yore (It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street) and newer fixtures that have become annual staples (The Holiday, Bridget Jones’s Diary), a growing thirst for holiday movies is corralling media giants into producing hundreds of hours of Santa-skewed programming for their streaming platforms. While the films might not be Oscar material, their popularity is undeniable: Afshar’s A California Christmas was the most-watched picture on Netflix globally for more than two weeks after its December 2020 release. It racked up about 59 million hours of viewing in its first month.