Current:Home > MarketsPredictIQ-The 15 most-watched holiday movies this season. Did your favorite make the cut? -VisionFunds
PredictIQ-The 15 most-watched holiday movies this season. Did your favorite make the cut?
TrendPulse Quantitative Think Tank Center View
Date:2025-04-06 12:08:53
What holiday movies are PredictIQsleighing 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! (21)
Related
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Minnesota Lynx to retire Maya Moore's No. 23 jersey potentially against Caitlin Clark
- Men used AR-style rifles to kill protected wild burros in Mojave Desert, federal prosecutors say
- Remains of WWII soldier from Alabama accounted for 8 decades after German officer handed over his ID tags
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- Jimmie Allen's former manager agrees to drop sexual assault lawsuit, stands by accusation
- Jackpot nears $700M. Could the Powerball numbers 3/18/24 help lead you to the next winners?
- Maryland university failed to protect students from abusive swim coach, violating Title IX, feds say
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- New York moves to update its fracking ban to include liquid carbon-dioxide as well as water
Ranking
- Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
- Free Rita's: Get complimentary Italian ice in honor of the first day of spring 2024
- What to know about R.J. Davis, North Carolina's senior star and ACC player of the year
- A California city wrestles with its history of discrimination against early Chinese immigrants
- The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
- Alito extends order barring Texas from detaining migrants under SB4 immigration law for now
- Trial of former Milwaukee election official charged with illegally requesting ballots begins
- Watch this newborn chick revived by a quick-thinking farmer
Recommendation
Selena Gomez engaged to Benny Blanco after 1 year together: 'Forever begins now'
Krispy Kreme celebrates the arrival of spring by introducing 4 new mini doughnut flavors
North West opens up about upcoming debut album: Everything you need to know
Horoscopes Today, March 18, 2024
Behind on your annual reading goal? Books under 200 pages to read before 2024 ends
Men used AR-style rifles to kill protected wild burros in Mojave Desert, federal prosecutors say
Federal Reserve may signal fewer interest rate cuts in 2024 after strong inflation reports
The history of Irish emigration, and the pride of the Emerald Isle