菲尔?康崔诺
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.
当《乐高大电影》于2月7-9日首映期间在北美创下惊人的6900万美元时，我不得不探望窗外，提醒自己现在究竟是几月份。我可没习惯积雪遍地的时候去报道这么高的票房数字。这感觉真好。幸运的是，在令人惊艳的首映后市场并未减缓。事实上，情势正好相反。接下来几周上映情况良好，从《永不停歇》、到《上帝之子》、《300勇士：帝国崛起》、《天才眼镜狗》、《分歧者》和《诺亚方舟：创世之旅》。然后《美国队长：冬日战士》在4月4日登场。截至发稿日，《美国队长》在全球冲破3亿美元大关，而且升势不减。迪士尼决定在4月上映续集是今年所有发行商将会作出的最英明的商业决策之一。《美国队长：冬日战士》的成功有力地表明，高质量内容带来高票房收入，而无论当下是不是旺季。
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.
快速浏览2015年的放映计划表明，2014年的强劲排期计划并非偶然。2015年2月手握大戏，诸如潜力火爆的《五十度灰》与《海绵宝宝大电影2》，接着2015年3月将推出《灰姑娘》、《反叛者》——分歧者的续集——《马达加斯加的企鹅》等等。至于2015年4月，《速度与激情7》的上映应该是重量级的。
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月与4月持续发展成旺季，每年会如何影响夏季呢？这很简单：那会让夏季减轻些许压力。年初强劲的排期计划表意味着夏季月份不需再像之前那样硬生生地强力拉升北美总票房。
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.
