When the year in movies begins, every preview under the sun will typically highlight the same few seasons: the summer months, the holiday season, the festival circuit for prestige films and the typical rush of horror movies around Halloween. 

In between those crucial timeframes, there can still be the occasional big film that aims to take advantage of a lull in marquee entertainment. But there’s one time of year that is well-known for delivering almost nothing: Dumpuary. 

Dumpuary, as originally coined on Bill Simmons’ former blog Grantland before becoming a staple of its successor, The Ringer, is the early months of the year — specifically, January and February — when good movies are hard to find.

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Many blockbusters that seem doomed to fail or underperform are set for a theatrical release anyway. B-list franchises and narrowly appealing original fare, for example, are typically stuck in Dumpuary. 

But why is this the case? First, it’s been clear for decades that the summer and holidays are the most dominant timeframes for movie theaters. Looking at the highest-grossing films of all time, the only true exception to this is “Black Panther” (2018), a superhero movie that defied expectations and became a box-office juggernaut despite its February release.  

In general, the movies that release in January and February are not expected to make anything more than a decent profit. In 2024, the highest-grossing domestic movie from Dumpuary was “Bob Marley: One Love” (2024), which finished 32nd among blockbusters and made $180.9 million worldwide against a $70 million budget. Even notable box-office bombs released in the fall, like “Joker: Folie à Deux” (2024) and “Red One” (2024), made more than the biggest Dumpuary title. 

Then there’s the prestige film calendar, revolving all around the Academy Awards, which will be held March 2. This year, films vying for Best Picture had to submit to the Academy by Nov. 14. For our purposes, this means that prestige films are unable to fill the void left by the major blockbusters that studios are saving for the summer and holidays.

So if there aren’t any prestige films, and there are no major blockbusters, then what remains is a hodgepodge of random releases that studios throw together in the hopes of making an extra few bucks before their major releases roll around. That said, it’s still possible for studios to take advantage of the Dumpuary timeframe.

There’s possibly no better time of year to get weird. A look at 2025’s holiday and summer releases finds a slate of safe bets and expensive projects — typically known as “event” films. “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “Jurassic World: Rebirth” necessitate a release optimized around theaters’ most profitable seasons. 

But the same can’t be said for a random animated spin-off of a film that only did alright at the box office. That’s why “Dog Man” was released in January instead of May — and it’s working out really well so far. 

The DreamWorks production has grossed $89 million worldwide as of Feb. 20 on a budget of $40 million. With no major animated rivals nearing theaters soon, “Dog Man” could corner the market on kids’ movies until “A Minecraft Movie” comes for it in April. 

Dumpuary is also a great time for studios to take a risk on a cheaper original film, which is far from a common occurrence in Hollywood nowadays. Warner Bros. released the original film “Companion” on Jan. 31, the same date as “Dog Man,” and the results have been quite strong. 

Riding the wave of stellar reviews across the board — the film is currently sitting comfortably at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an 89% audience score to boot — “Companion” is now sitting at $33.5 million at the box office against a budget of about $10 million. 

A major studio taking a bet on a sci-fi thriller from an unknown writer-director, Drew Hancock, and a couple of lesser-known stars in Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid would not normally have any chance of succeeding — but in Dumpuary, it has received that chance. 

A Dumpuary release isn’t necessarily a death sentence, whether you’re releasing a major Captain America sequel or a small sci-fi original. But for major film studios, it remains important to be strategic about what films you “dump” into those less coveted release windows. After all, you never know what audiences will latch onto. Yesterday’s Dumpuary release could be tomorrow’s summer blockbuster.

Sammy Bovitz is a sophomore writing about the business of film. His column, “Boardrooms & Blockbusters,” runs every other Friday. He is also a magazine editor at the Daily Trojan.