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Q: How can Hallmark keep coming up with so many Christmas movies every year? It seems amazing to me.

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

There are a couple of different answers to your question, both of which take some of the amazement away. But you asked for it.

You aren't the only person to be impressed by Hallmark's holiday output -- last year, Business Insider magazine and the Wall Street Journal both produced exposes of sorts about the Hallmark Channel Christmas-movie machine. The two biggest revelations were that the films are shockingly cheap to make, and that they actually work from a checklist.

The movies take about three weeks to make, at a budget of about $2 million. That's closer to the time and cost of a single TV episode, rather than an entire feature film. Frequent Hallmark film director Ron Oliver drew another comparison: $2 million is roughly "the catering budget for 'Transformers.'"

The Wall Street Journal talked to different sources and found that Hallmark has developed a checklist it applies to all of its Christmas movies. While the particular plots can vary (somewhat), all of them must feature classic Christmas moments wrapping presents, choosing a tree and baking. Thus, the films all have the same cozy feeling despite the (again, minor) storyline variations.

Of course, all this cold calculation doesn't eliminate the idea that Hallmark is staffed entirely by incurable Christmas romantics. After all, regardless of how they do it, it's clear that the network is pretty devoted to this one holiday.

 

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