<P> But Surowiecki noted that Cartier and Liarte's conclusions that social factors within the industry played a part i the continuation of the release cycles that result in the dump months, due to the many uncertainties involved in producing and distributing a major motion picture and studio executives' desire to avoid blame for a big - budget film's commercial failure . "If you open a blockbuster on Memorial Day and it fails, no one is going to blame you for your release strategy", Einav, who in his paper likened this phenomenon to the maxim on Wall Street that no one ever gets fired for recommending investors buy shares of IBM, told him . "If you open a potential blockbuster in February and it fails you're going to be on the hook ." </P> <P> In 2013, John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), criticized the dump months (among several other studio practices) at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of film exhibitors hosted by NATO . The theaters had come off a first quarter where receipts had been down 12% from the first quarter of 2012 . He faulted the studios for their insufficiently diverse offerings in 2013 as compared to the first quarter of the year before, which he connected to the dump - months phenomenon . "Any month can produce a $100 million movie," he said in his speech . "In 2012, distributors spread their movies over the calendar, and we had a record year ." </P> <P> Responding later, in an indieWIRE panel discussion hosted by Anne Thompson, Universal Studios chairman Adam Fogelson agreed in principle with Fithian, saying "there are very few reasons other than historical behavior why almost any film can't work on almost any weekend ..." he said . He pointed to the 2005 success of White Noise on the first weekend of January as having opened that time up to similar low - budget horror films . </P> <P> However, he called the belief among some exhibitors that the theaters' slump was attributable to a plethora of R - rated films saved for January, a criticism repeated by Fithian, "simplistic ." The problem was the movies in question, not their ratings . Django Unchained, he insisted, would have been a hit regardless of the month it opened . "It happens to be about the movies," Fogelson said . "People tend to, if not forget, minimize how complicated this is ." </P>

When does the summer blockbuster movie season begin