Current:Home > MyThe 15 most-watched holiday movies this season. Did your favorite make the cut? -Wealth Evolution Experts
The 15 most-watched holiday movies this season. Did your favorite make the cut?
View
Date:2025-04-12 04:50:44
What holiday movies are sleighing the ratings? It’s a mixed Santa’s sack of the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Present, according to data shared exclusively with USA TODAY.
Samba TV, which analyzes viewership habits of households collected through smart TVs, assembled a list of the most-watched movies on TV and streaming services in the U.S. between Nov. 10 and Dec. 10. (For the study, a view means the household watched at least five minutes of a feature.)
Smiling along to “Elf” proved audiences’ favorite. So far, 9 million households have watched the 2003 feature starring Will Ferrell as whimsical Buddy the tall elf, who left the North Pole in search of his biological father. Nearly 8 million households have found 1989's “National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation” as enjoyable as a one-year membership to a jelly-of-the-month club. Who doesn’t feel for Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) during his obsessive quest to provide a perfect Christmas for his extended family? And this stat might make you do Macaulay Culkin’s famed “Home Alone” face: the 33-year-old flick, in which a son forgotten by his vacationing family fights off burglars, raked in 7.1 million views.
'Santa! I know him!'How to watch 'Elf' this holiday: TV listings, streaming and more
By comparison, only three original holiday movies released on streaming platforms this year managed to snare more than 1 million households. Netflix’s “Best. Christmas. Ever!” starring Jason Biggs, Heather Graham and Brandy Norwood, attracted 2.3 million households. “The Family Switch,” Netflix's holiday-themed spin on “Freaky Friday” with Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms, garnered 1.9 million, which ties it with Amazon Prime Video’s “Candy Cane Lane,” starring Eddie Murphy.
Murphy told USA TODAY that he longed to do his first Christmas movie, and decided on “Candy Cane Lane” — a sort of “Jumanji” meets “The Santa Clause” — after contemplating remaking a classic. “’It's a Wonderful Life,’ 'Miracle on 34th Street,' we were looking through all of them," Murphy said. "But then this script came along, and it was like, ‘Hey, this has all the elements, and it's unique. So we can make our own little modern-day classic instead of remaking an old one.’”
The 15 most-watched movies between Nov. 10 and Dec. 10:
You'll notice that the largely debated "Die Hard" starring Bruce Willis makes the list. As Ashwin Navin, Samba TV's CEO, sees it: "There's no debate: 'Die Hard' is in fact a Christmas movie, and one of the greatest of all time at that," he said in a statement.
- "Elf" (2003, streaming on Max), 9 million household views
- "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989, Max), 7.9
- "Home Alone" (1990, Disney+), 7.1
- "The Santa Clause" (1994, Disney+), 4.3
- "Four Christmases" (2008, Max), 3.5
- "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000, on Peacock Dec. 20‒31), 2.5
- "Best. Christmas. Ever!" (2023, Netflix Original), 2.3
- "The Holiday" (2006, for rent on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV), 2.3
- "Family Switch" (2023, Netflix Original), 1.9
- "A Christmas Story" (1983, Max), 1.9
- "Candy Cane Lane" (2023, Amazon Original), 1.9
- "It's a Wonderful Life" (1947, Amazon Prime), 1.7
- "Die Hard" (1988, Disney+), 1.4
- "Love Actually" (2003, Netflix), 1.4
- "The Polar Express" (2004, Max), 1.1
Chevy Chase fallsoff stage in New York at 'Christmas Vacation' movie screening
The casting director for 'Elf'would pick this other 'SNL' alum to star in a remake
veryGood! (69624)
Related
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Lionel Messi, Inter Miami face New York Red Bulls in MLS game: How to watch
- Ashnikko's 'Weedkiller' takes you into a queer dystopian world
- The Justice Department is suing SpaceX for allegedly not hiring refugees and asylees
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- With drones and webcams, volunteer hunters join a new search for the mythical Loch Ness Monster
- Chemistry PHD student in Florida charged for injecting chemical agent under upstairs neighbor's door
- The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., to return giant pandas to China. What you need to know.
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Bachelor Nation's Shawn Booth Weighs In On Ex-Fiancée Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Breakup With Jason Tartick
Ranking
- Realtor group picks top 10 housing hot spots for 2025: Did your city make the list?
- As schools resume, CDC reports new rise in COVID emergency room visits from adolescents
- Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers renew claim that the FTX founder can’t prepare for trial behind bars
- UN experts say Islamic State group almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in under a year
- Will the 'Yellowstone' finale be the last episode? What we know about Season 6, spinoffs
- Ukraine pilots to arrive in U.S. for F-16 fighter jet training next month
- Boston announces new plan to rid city of homeless encampment, get residents help
- List of NFL players suspended for violating gambling policies
Recommendation
The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
Longtime 'Price Is Right' host Bob Barker dies at 99
Heat records continue to fall in Dallas as scorching summer continues in the United States
Have mercy! John Stamos celebrates 'the other side of 60' in nude Instagram post
What were Tom Selleck's juicy final 'Blue Bloods' words in Reagan family
Maui County releases names of 388 people unaccounted for since the devastating wildfires
'I don’t like the situation': 49ers GM John Lynch opens up about Nick Bosa's holdout
Noah Lyles gets coveted sprint double at worlds; Sha'Carri Richardson wins bronze in 200