The greatest Christmas movie of all time, according to science
Trying to definitively name the best movie in any given genre is as impossibly open-ended as it gets, but thankfully, science has found a way through the endless debate. Everyone has a favourite Christmas film, but only one of them emerged at the head of the pack following an exhaustive study.
Of course, nobody is inclined to agree with the results of any such findings, but the painstaking research has already been applied to horror and found a victor that plenty of viewers would wholeheartedly agree with. Perhaps fortunately, Die Hard didn’t win out as the greatest Christmas film ever made to reopen a can of worms that explodes every December, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be naysayers who disagree with Home Alone claiming the title for itself.
Chris Columbus’ 1990 classic is undoubtedly one of the most beloved and rewatched festive frolics of all time, not to mention one of the most successful. In addition to netting $476million at the global box office – setting a record for the top-earning live-action comedy ever made and holding it for almost a dozen years until The Hangover Part II arrived – it found plenty of awards season recognition.
As well as securing two Academy Award nominations for ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Original Song’, Home Alone was a Golden Globe nominee for ‘Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy’. The instant superstar Macaulay Culkin managed to be shortlisted for ‘Best Actor’ in the corresponding category.
That doesn’t make it the best ever made by default, though, but Music Magpie nonetheless judged 20 Christmastime classics by a variety of factors and deduced that none could out-perform Home Alone. If anything, the data is illuminating in just how festive the film really is and what sets it apart from the competition.
The four main criteria are listed as Christmas References, Critical Acclaim, Financial Performance, and Festive Buzz. Having ranked first out of 20 on the latter two fronts, the misadventures of Kevin McCallister established an early lead, having hauled in close to half a billion in ticket sales, not to mention racking up over a million mentions on social media and upwards of five million Google searches.
The references themselves are sub-categorised into the number of elves seen on-screen, as well as shots of miscellaneous festive activities, snow, reindeer, carol singers, Santa Claus, Christmas shopping, Christmas presents, Christmas food, Christmas trees, Christmas outfits, Christmas songs, Christmas stockings, and mentions of the word “Christmas” in the screenplay.
Home Alone notches 42 such references, which isn’t just lagging behind its own sequel with 107 but a long way off Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which took the top spot by way of a mind-boggling 207 acknowledgements of assorted Yuletide iconography.
It can’t be argued that the scientific findings are meticulous and in-depth, but whether or not Home Alone really is the greatest Christmas movie of all time remains entirely down to taste and personal preference.
