Starring in a Christmas movie is becoming a lucrative career pivot

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Netflix; Emily Assiran/Getty Images for That's 4 Entertainment; Marleen Moise/Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI

On a cold and rainy night in November, over 2,000 people trekked to a nondescript arena on Long Island for some Christmas cheer.

They were there for the Great American Family Christmas Festival, an event put on by the cable TV network of the same name. For five weekends, the festival transformed the UBS Arena into a holiday wonderland complete with ice skating...