This article was originally published in 2018. It has been republished in celebration of The Nightmare Before Christmas celebrating its 30th anniversary (as of October 2023).
Walk into any drugstore between October and December and there will be at least one endcap of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas snow globes and plushies and slippers and lawn decorations and lights, Jack Skellington costumes in plastic bags and inflatable Oogie Boogies, and a Nightmare-themed Jenga game.
But this wasn’t always the case.
When the film hit theaters in October 1993 – first as a limited release and then a full theatrical release – it went virtually unnoticed, garnering a modest but successful $76 million gross and becoming the first film nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 1993 Academy Awards (losing to Jurassic Park).
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Walgreen’s The Nightmare Before Christmas display, photo by Cyanide_Kat
The film celebrates its 30th anniversary this October in a much different world. Arguments may break out over whether it’s a Halloween or Christmas movie – I’m in the Halloween camp – but it has become a seasonal classic, thanks in no small part to the Disney machine, which pushed merchandising to extremes. For a considerable time through the late 1990s, the only merchandise available was a handful of stationary and party supplies and some figurines and dolls by Hasbro and NECA. (I got my Jack Skellington from Tower Records and my Sally from St. Mark’s Comics, each in the $80 range.)
But in the summer of 2001, Disney released a handful of chibi-style plushies into their stores, and the push had begun anew. Now, the merchandise is stocked alongside other licensed holiday properties, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story, and A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Perhaps the reason The Nightmare Before Christmas has taken such hold is that it creates an accessibility point for the spookier side of film. It’s creepy but never violent, twisted but never cruel. Just as your neighbor is not a witch, just a woman wearing a mask when she opens the door with a bowl of mini Kit Kats, Jack and company are just ordinary people doing their jobs — even if their ordinary job involves hiding under the stairs with spider-hair.
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Hasbro Toy Line
