Ah Thanksgiving, the middle child. As a middle child myself I can empathize with the feeling of being overlooked by your more successful siblings. Though Thanksgiving is a time where we appreciate the people around us and the feast of food we demolish, it is really just the spring board toward the big daddy of them all, Christmas.
Christmas is the biggest holiday of the year. From the decorations, to the shopping, the cold weather, and overall merry vibes. But one thing that is a staple to the holiday season is Christmas movies.
Christmas movies are the comfort food that we all use to nourish our spirit to make it through the final month of the year. The background noise throughout the house for the next 27 plus days. While Christmas movies aren’t all necessarily great, they are a nice pallet cleanser. But now that the season is upon us, I found myself wondering,
“When was the last big blockbuster Christmas movie?”
Now I know this is gonna sound like a cop out, but I’m not talking about animated features such as 2018’s The Grinch, 2009’s A Christmas Carol, and 2004’s Polar Express. I know taking The Grinch from 2018 is technically cheating seeing as it is the highest grossing Christmas film of all time at a whopping $526.7 million dollars in the box office. But we have about 4 different Grinch movies and 3 of them are animated, so to be fair I’ve eliminated the animated versions and will stick to live action. As for Christmas Carol and Polar Express, though they might be solid holiday movies, I am sticking with live action films. Animated films will get their own blog seeing as studios and companies seem to want to abandon animation all together. (Looking at you MAX).
Immediately after 2018’s The Grinch the second and third highest grossing Christmas films are the first two Home Alone films. Home Alone from 1990 is the second highest grossing Christmas film with an impressive $476.6 million dollars made while its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost In New York in 1992 finished with a strong $358.9 million dollars. These two films have dominated the Christmas movie landscape for more than 30 years, but surely those can’t be the last great holiday movies right?
They aren’t, and don’t call me Sherely. (This reference worked better in my head).
In fourth place we finally get to the one Grinch film I’m keeping on this list, and that is the live action film How the Grinch Stole Christmas from the year 2000. This film made a whopping $345.8 million dollars and was either loved or hated by fans. Some thought Jim Carey’s performance was a standout while others just couldn’t get behind the costumes, sets, character designs, or some fans just couldn’t get behind Carey’s performances as the fury green menace. But is the year 2000 the last year we had a great holiday movie banger? The answer is no, but we’re getting closer and closer toward the end.
The year 2003 was a solid year for Christmas movies as there were two heavy hitters in the genre. 2003 gave us Elf and Love Actually. Both made more than $200 million and both are classics in the Christmas movie world. Elf in particular feels like it is a must watch and falls into the category of “If it’s on tv I’m watching it.” regardless of month it is. Now Elf went with the comedy approach with the help of Will Ferrell, Love Actually went with RomCom. Love Actually has some of the most devoted fans when it comes to Christmas films and for obvious reasons. Who doesn’t want love during the most magical time of the year? Both of these films are standouts when it comes to Christmas films, but were they the last of a dying breed? These two films were one of the main reasons why I decided to blog this topic this week. Seeing as both movies came out over 20 years ago (that hurt to type) I’m finding it harder and harder to find a Christmas movie that was as successful and recognizable as these two films.
That’s not to say their aren’t good Christmas movies that came out after these two films. The Holiday in 2006, 4 Christmases in 2008, Hell even Daddy’s Home 2 in 2018 were fun holiday romps. And although those three films did well in the box office, for the most part, they never reached that Christmas classic like Home Alone or Elf.
We are in desperate need of a new Christmas juggernaut. A movie that will take over and declare itself the new Santa in town. A movie that is whimsical, oozing with holiday charm, while balancing funny and heartfelt all at the same time. A movie you can put on while the fireplace wraps the warmth of the holidays around you as you blanket burrito on the couch. A movie that will make you laugh, smile, cheer, and even cry. If only there was a film out there that could do all of those things…
Ho Ho Hoooo S**t.
