‘Home Alone’ Dubbed America’s Most Popular Christmas Movie
Every year come December, the debate begins: What is the definitive best Christmas movie of all time? While we may never know the answer, we can certainly glean which is the most popular. According to a nationwide poll reported by MovieWeb, America's most popular holiday movie is the 1990 John Hughes classic Home Alone.
The results of the poll were released in honor of Christmas Movie Marathon Day, December 23. Home Alone scored the highest in 15 different states, including New York, Virginia, and Oklahoma. It isn't surprising that Illinois picked Home Alone as their favorite holiday movie to binge watch — the McAllister family lives in a suburb of Chicago. The Christmas caper starring Macauley Culkin was released to the tune of $476.7 million, and was the highest grossing live-action comedy in history until The Hangover Part II in 2011.
The second highest ranking movie? 2000's How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The live-action Dr. Seuss adaptation starring Jim Carrey was chosen by Texas, Louisiana, and Kentucky, among others.
Surprisingly enough, Robert Zemeckis' The Polar Express ranked third, despite the fact that it's actually kind of creepy. The Tom Hanks-led movie was listed in the 2006 Guinness World Records as the first all-digital capture film.
Rounding out the top five is 2018's Christmas Chronicles starring Kurt Russell as Santa Claus, and Jon Favreau's whimsical Christmas comedy Elf starring Will Ferrell. Other popular holiday movies that popped up from the poll's results include Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Santa Clause, and Love, Actually. Crazy enough, two states — Washington and Kansas — selected Die Hard as their quintessential holiday flick.
Gallery — Classic Holiday TV Specials Ranked From Worst to Best: