Blog
Christmas Movies
BY THE NUMBERS
By The Numbers, a look at what’s in the news . . . by the numbers. These are just numbers, not suggestions that they mean more or less than what they are. We do not suggest that one number is connected to another. These are simply facts with no extraneous details, bias or slanted reporting. To borrow (and perhaps mangle a bit) a quote from legendary fictional detective Joe Friday, it’s just the numbers, ma’am!
It’s not beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . it very much has looked like that for a while. We’ve got the snow, the ice, the wind chill . . . and of course the beautiful Christmas decorations. When we go inside to warm up, we’ve also got the opportunity to watch one Christmas movie after another after another after another. And that got us to thinking about Christmas movies. Just how many are there? Why are they so popular? How many of us watch them? We don’t know any of these answers so we decided to dive into Christmas movies . . . by the numbers!
300-450
Depending on what search engine you use, it looks like the good folks at the Hallmark Channel hasve released somewhere between 300 and 450 Christmas movies.
1951
Wondering when Hallmark created its first Christmas movie? Yup, 1951. That title was Amahl and the Night Visitors. It was part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame series.
2000
OK, maybe the Hallmark Hall of Fame series goes way back, but as for the movies we tend to think of when someone mentions Hallmark Christmas movies, those began production in 2000.
15-20
Before we leave Hallmark, we wondered how many actors appear over and over in Hallmark movies. It seems like the faces on the screen are pretty familiar. Our AI friends tell us there are 15 to 20 actors who are credited with roles in multiple Hallmark movies. Lacey Chabert is said to be in the most. But others right up there include Candace Cameron Bure, Danica McKellar (remember her from The Wonder Years?), Tyler Hynes, Andrew Walker, Nikki DeLoach, Holly Robinson Peete, Autumn Reeser and others.
1,200+
According to the IMDb (Internet Movie Database), there are more than 1,200 Christmas movies. However, every source we could find says that is a very low estimate and there are lots and lots more.
No. 1?
What’s the top Christmas movie of all time? Well, that depends on your perspective and what you are using to measure. It’s A Wonderful Life had the highest IMDb rating of 8.6. Although those ratings change, it was followed by Klaus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas. In terms of dollars, 2018’s The Grinch movie grossed $538 million, making it the biggest box office smash. And in terms of favorites, well, again, it depends on each person. Several mentioned include White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, Holiday Inn, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, Meet Me in St. Louis, Elf, Little Women . . . What’s yours?
84 to 110
The average Christmas movie runs from 84 minutes to 110. The ones you see that were made for TV tend to be on the shorter side while the movies on the big screen go longer. With tickets to the movies costing around $16-18, we would hope they are longer!
No. 11
And for those who partake in the eternal debate of whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, we take no sides. But we will share this. Rotten Tomatoes lists the Bruce Willis classic as the 11th best Christmas movie of all time.