菲爾?康崔諾
When The LEGO Movie debuted to a staggering $69 million in North America during the weekend of February 7-9， I had to check outside my window to remind myself of what month we were in. Im not used to reporting numbers that high when theres still snow on the ground. It felt good. Luckily， the market didnt slow down after that surprising debut. In fact， the exact opposite happened. The weeks that followed saw healthy debuts from Non-Stop， Son of God， 300： Rise of an Empire， Mr. Peabody & Sherman， Divergent and Noah. Then came Captain America： The Winter Soldier on April 4. As of press time， The Winter Soldier has already passed $300 million worldwide with plenty of room to grow. Disneys decision to release the sequel in April will remain one of the smartest business moves that any distributor will make this year. The success of The Winter Soldier drives home the point that quality content will result in box office receipts no matter what the calendar reads.
當《樂高大電影》于2月7-9日首映期間在北美創下驚人的6900萬美元時，我不得不探望窗外，提醒自己現在究竟是幾月份。我可沒習慣積雪遍地的時候去報道這么高的票房數字。這感覺真好。幸運的是，在令人驚艷的首映后市場并未減緩。事實上，情勢正好相反。接下來幾周上映情況良好，從《永不停歇》、到《上帝之子》、《300勇士：帝國崛起》、《天才眼鏡狗》、《分歧者》和《諾亞方舟：創世之旅》。然后《美國隊長：冬日戰士》在4月4日登場。截至發稿日，《美國隊長》在全球沖破3億美元大關，而且升勢不減。迪士尼決定在4月上映續集是今年所有發行商將會作出的最英明的商業決策之一。《美國隊長：冬日戰士》的成功有力地表明，高質量內容帶來高票房收入，而無論當下是不是旺季。
A quick glance at the 2015 release schedule indicates that the strong scheduling of early 2014 is no fluke. February 2015 boasts such potential hits as Fifty Shades of Grey and SpongeBob Squarepants 2， while March 2015 brings Cinderella， Insurgent—the sequel to Divergent—and The Penguins of Madagascar， among others. As for April 2015， the release of Fast & Furious 7 should be massive.
快速瀏覽2015年的放映計劃表明，2014年的強勁排期計劃并非偶然。2015年2月手握大戲，諸如潛力火爆的《五十度灰》與《海綿寶寶大電影2》，接著2015年3月將推出《灰姑娘》、《反叛者》——分歧者的續集——《馬達加斯加的企鵝》等等。至于2015年4月，《速度與激情7》的上映應該是重量級的。
If February， March and April continue to evolve into powerhouse months， how will that affect the Summer season each year？ Thats simple： it takes some of the pressure off. A strong release schedule early in the year means that the Summer months dont need to boost the North American total box office as much as they did before.
如果2月、3月與4月持續發展成旺季，每年會如何影響夏季呢？這很簡單：那會讓夏季減輕些許壓力。年初強勁的排期計劃表意味著夏季月份不需再像之前那樣硬生生地強力拉升北美總票房。
Were now heading into a Summer season thats full of definite hits and a couple of films that look they could surprise. More importantly， its full of films that will play well globally. Unfortunately， its taking a long time for the “North America is the world” mentality to die when it comes to the way that many people analyze the performance of this industry. The media still loves to pounce on domestic failures while largely ignoring—or at least downplaying—the successes. Case in point： last summer there was no shortage of articles about how big of a bomb The Long Ranger was， but writers seemed to forget that the same studio that put out The Lone Ranger also released two films—Iron Man 3 and Monsters University—that combined for nearly $2 billion in global receipts. How convenient.
