Sissi, Die Hard or Actually… Love? The answer to the question of THE Christmas classic is often very different. For many film fans, the slapstick comedy Kevin – Home Alone is certainly part of their annual must-see program when the contemplative time has begun.
The chaotic, heartfelt fun from 1990 made lead actor Macaulay Culkin a child star and became one gigantic cinema hit. The film played worldwide over $476 million a . An impressive number, especially for the time, but one that was topped by another Christmas film: the animated comedy The Grinch.
2018’s The Grinch is the highest-grossing Christmas film of all time
The Grinch is one Adaptation of the children’s book How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss (The Lorax). The original from 1957 is particularly popular in the USA and gained greater fame in this country thanks to the 2000 live-action film of the same name starring Jim Carrey.
The 2018 animated version marks the co-directing debut of Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney. It tells the story of a green-haired creature named the Grinch, who explained a… Hatred of Christmas cherishes. In order to take away the joy of the holidays from the residents of his town of Whoville, he decides to steal all the Christmas presents on Christmas Eve.
Watch the trailer for The Grinch here:
The Grinch – Trailer 3 (German) HD
While Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch speaks the grumpy, quirky title character in the original English language, Cult comedian Otto Waalkes lent his voice to the Grinch in the German dubbed version.
Apparently two smart decisions, because The Grinch was a crowd puller in both the USA and Germany. The animated film alone attracted us over 2.3 million viewers in cinemas and landed at number 8 in the German annual charts for 2018.
The work achieved a total worldwide over $540 million in box office receipts and thus left Kevin – Home Alone behind in the ranking of the most successful Christmas films of all time. To be fair, The Grinch cost about four times as much as Kevin, with a budget of $75 million. Of course, the animated film remains a complete success.
For the sake of completeness, we’ll tell you the top 5 most successful Christmas films of all time (respective box office earnings in US dollars):
Stream The Grinch: You can watch the animated Christmas film here
In keeping with the Christmas season, several streaming providers are currently offering The Grinch at a flat rate. You can currently watch the Christmas film on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and WOW.