Poppin' the champagne corks on New Year's?

There may be no movie more tailor made to this year's holiday season than Mary Poppins Returns.

If you argued the point with me, you might suggest The Grinch or The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, since those are actual Christmas movies. (Was there another in there? I forget.)

But what I'm really talking about is movies that feel like Christmas incarnate, like little bundles of magic and pretty art direction. The cinematic version of a gingerbread house. That's Mary Poppins Returns to a T.

In the U.S., it opened on December 19th. That was perfectly timed for many people to see it as an accompaniment to their final weekend's worth of shopping. For those who didn't, it made for an ideal family theatrical outing on Christmas day.

But in Australia it's getting released on ... January 1st?

That's right. It isn't even a Thursday.

Thursday is the day of the week movies bow here in Australia. But the biggest release date of the year is undoubtedly Boxing Day, when no less than 15 new movies open, this year including the likes of Ralph Breaks the Internet, Aquaman, Vice, Holmes & Watson and The Favorite. That's a recognition of the fact that okay, going to the movies on Christmas is not a big thing here, but by Boxing Day, theatrical attendance explodes. Not only is it a public holiday, but you've usually got to get out of the heat.

Mary Poppins Returns should have joined their lot. But it didn't. It's coming out on New Year's Day, when it'll still undoubtedly be hot, but when the holiday season is kind of "over."

I'm oversimplifying a bit. Really, the holiday season starts about December 15th and doesn't end until Australia Day, which is January 26th. You could argue that any movie released during this time is designed to capitalize on kids being out of school and people needing to get out of the heat. As a prime example of that, the third How to Train Your Dragon movie opens just two days later, on the proper Thursday. It doesn't open in the U.S. until February 22nd (also a weird time of year, I might add).

But there's something so ... gingerbready about Mary Poppins Returns. And if gingerbread houses feel anathema already in 100 degree heat, they'll feel even more so after the calendar has rolled over into 2019.