Most Popular Christmas Movies

Christmas films are a source of endless fascination: most Christmas canon is literary, meaning that a great deal of Christmas cinema is adapted from Christmas literature, allowing for age-old stories to be retold in fresh and unique ways every year. In addition to films based off books, Christmas cinema also sports a great many original stories, many of which have become classics and part of the Christmas canon in their own right. Here are several examples of Christmas films that have since become timeless classics

Home Alone (1990)

Home Alone, the brainchild of writer John Hughes, began as an exploration of what would happen if a child was left to their own devices on Christmas Day, and the film adapted from his script has kept true to exploring this concept: the film follows the character of Kevin McCalister, a boy mistakenly left behind by his parents, who must face the difficulties of living alone and repelling a home invasion by two spectacularly incompetent robbers, Harry and Marv.

During production, the film was plagued by difficulties: firstly, Warner Bros, the first studio to pick Hughes’ idea up, set a strict budget of $10 million; when the film’s producers refused to succumb to Warner’s demands to reduce the $14 million budget that the film had ballooned to, Warner pulled the plug on production. Thankfully, Hughes had made an under-the-table deal with 20th Century Fox, who not only resumed production, but also increased the budget to $18 million.

Further, Home Alone faced difficulties with the Macaulay Culkin, the actor playing the character of Kevin: as he was a child actor, he was not allowed to work past 10 p.m., meaning that the production team had almost no time to film the nighttime scenes that featured him, which made up a large portion of the film. This was partially remedied by the director, Chris Columbus, taking over the role of Kevin in all the nighttime scenes where Kevin was off-camera, allowing production to continue with the rest of the actors after Culkin left the set.

Finally, Home Alone was always at risk of being set back by safety issues: Columbus had remarked that originally, he found none of the comedic stunts in the film funny, as they involved a level of risk that could have seriously injured the stuntmen. This risk was exacerbated after a decision was taken to remove safety harnesses from the stuntmen, after the harnesses were judged to be too conspicuous to produce a comedic effect.

Nevertheless, despite these difficulties, the film performed spectacularly, grossing almost half a billion dollars at the box office, which surpassed the budget by over 26 times.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Christmas and all who stand for it, especially the residents of neighbouring Whoville. Initially, the Grinch is determined to ruin Christmas for Whoville by stealing everyone’s presents, but after realising that he has not prevented Christmas by doing so, he begins to understand Christmas to be more than just a materialistic celebration.

This was a tough film to produce: the book’s author, Dr. Seuss, provided very few details in the book itself, focusing mainly on the plot. This left a lot to be desired by the production team, who had to flesh out the book’s backstory and the minor character of Cindy Lou Who into a main character. As such, the film’s fidelity to the book is questionable. Perhaps, for this reason, Dr. Seuss always insisted on refusing to allow anyone to adapt his books into film. In fact, to produce How the Grinch Stole Christmas, it took Dr. Seuss dying for the rights to the film to be finally be sold. However, even when the rights were sold, they were curtailed by rigorous requirements, like the requirement that the director of the film must have previously directed a film that has grossed over $1 million.

However, despite the rigorous requirements set, the film was only moderately successful: although it grossed $345 million, over double its budget, many critics panned the film as a padded, dull story, that was carried solely by Jim Carrey’s enthusiastic portrayal of the Grinch.

The Polar Express (2004)

Just like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Polar Express is an animated film based on a book of the same name, written by Chris van Allsburg in 1985. However, unlike Dr. Seuss, Allsburg was enthusiastic about the venture, acting as one of the executive producers of the film. The film features a boy who does not believe in the existence of Santa Claus, who is invited upon a train bound for the North Pole. Along his perilous journey, he discovers that Santa is in fact real, and becomes the first child that Christmas to receive a gift.

The Polar Express was made using motion-capture animation, being the first film to be entirely animated using this method, meaning that every scene in The Polar Express has been acted out, at some point, by real people. Originally, rights to the film were sold under the condition that the film would be live-action, but the exorbitant potential costs of such a project pushed the film into being animated. Even when animated, the film cost over $165 million, putting it among the most expensive animated films ever. For comparison, Toy Story and Toy Story 2, films released only five years prior, cost $120 million to produce combined.

In the end, The Polar Express’ gamble paid off: it grossed $313 million over all releases, meaning that it nearly made nearly double its budget. Regardless, it was disliked by many critics, who criticised the film’s creepy animation and uninteresting plot. For others, though, the film has become an instant classic, and the film’s popularity is reflected in the efforts by many rail companies to re-enact the route taken by the fictional locomotive.