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Godzilla’s a monster in the calendar world
By Maria Puente, USA TODAY
King Kong is in theaters everywhere, but he won’t be making an appearance on 2006 calendars. Godzilla, however, will be stomping all over walls in the coming year — just another example of the peculiar ways that Americans’ obsessions are reflected in their calendars.
Hurry or the bookstore may be out of the Napoleon Dynamite calendar. Gosh!
Calendar sellers say 2006 will be a year when there’s room for both fresh and familiar celebrities and diversions.
New this year are calendars devoted to young-and-nubile entertainers Lindsay Lohan and Ashlee Simpson — and long-dead classic stars such as Steve McQueen and Audrey Hepburn.
Other calendars focus on homey crafts such as crochet and needlepoint, as well as new amusements such as sudoku, the Japanese puzzle craze.
Nostalgia is still hot, so look for calendars off the Brat Pack movies, Animal House and Bond girls. Yet the real sensation is cult favorite Napoleon Dynamite, a film about a nerdy Idaho high-schooler.
“It’s a huge teen thing — in fact, we may be sold out in another week or two,” says Hillel Levin, general manager of Calendars.com, the largest purveyor of calendars online and in retail kiosks.
Also big in 2006 are multiple calendars for movie heartthrobs Johnny Depp (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pirates of the Caribbean, Corpse Bride) and Orlando Bloom, who not only figures in Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean calendars, but also has two devoted just to him, both in character (as Rings’ Legolas) and out.
And Godzilla, the oversized, atomic-bomb-created Japanese lizard who last rampaged on the big screen in 1998, is a big seller for 2006, while Kong, in theaters now, is a no-show, says Levin.
“Maybe next year for Kong,” he says.
So what great insight can we draw from Americans’ calendar-buying choices? Beats me, Levin says.
In part, he says, it’s a reflection of Americans’ varied tastes and interests.
“Calendars feed into the wide gamut of affinities that people have, from dog breeds to crafts, classic tractors, lawn mowers, outhouses and on and on.”
It’s also a reflection of the galloping growth of the calendar industry.
According to a study commissioned by Calendars.com, the calendar publishing industry now totals about $467 million a year. About 52 million individual calendars are sold a year.
“Every year it’s bigger,” Levin says. “Three years ago, we had 2,500 titles, last year we had 5,000, this year we’ve got 6,500.”