While Google’s search analytics for “The Nightmare Before Christmas” indicate that users generally think of the movie as more of a Halloween film than a Christmas one, some users have taken issue with the results of the data. “Presumably there is more competition over Christmas though? As in, since there are more Christmas films than Halloween films, interest in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ might be more diluted?” u/Rondont commented. “So the graph isn’t just a reflection of the content of the film itself, it’s reflective of differences in interest over time.”
Other users felt like the disparity between searches for “The Nightmare Before Christmas” wasn’t the salient point of the data. Indeed, while the graph proves that searches for the movie are highest during the Halloween period, it also indicates that searches regularly spike (even if to a lesser extent) during the Christmas season. For some, that data supports a third option in the debate over whether “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a Halloween or Christmas movie. “Dichotomy is usually a logical fallacy,” u/docious wrote. “It’s both.”
All in all, a bit of data might not be enough to fully convince some fans of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” to change their minds. As u/MithranArkanere remarked, “This tells us that it’s a Christmas movie that people watch on Halloween.”
