Who’s “we” in this statement? https://twitter.com/Collider/status/1329122565458161667

Nothing really to do with this article, but here’s a quick thread about “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Made in 1946, it was never intended as a Christmas movie and bombed upon release, losing RKO something like half a million.

Though it was released in December it had been planned as a late-winter 1947 release but got moved up hoping to get some action during award season, because that shit was already happening 70+ years ago.

Though it wasn’t as critically despised at the time as its reputation would later have it, the film just got filed away as a failed experiment. That was until 1974, when due to a clerical error the copyright expired.

Suddenly TV stations realized they could pick up a studio product with a famous star and a sort-of Christmas theme for no more than the cost of the royalties on the original short story the movie is based on because the film itself was public domain.

Subsequently, until the film got played on stations across the country every December, not because it was some beloved classic, but because it was cheap programming. It became standard Christmas viewing simply because it was widely available.

All that changed in 1993 when the current copyright holders won a court case that reestablished their rights to the film, and “It’s a Wonderful Life” was taken out of public domain.

All of which is to say that this is how a film that opens with a man contemplating suicide and goes on to tell an overtly religious parable about gratitude and community that only has anything to do with Christmas in its closing scenes became a beloved holiday tradition.

Which is a shame, because “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrible movie.