The Most Popular Christmas Movie, By State, And The Least Popular Of The Last 40 Years
What’s your favorite Christmas movie? What is your neighbor’s? Chances are, they’re the same. The folks behind CableTV recently did the research to see which holiday classic movie (or TV special for that matter) was the favorite among each state. They began by comparing the top 20 Christmas Movies listing on AMC’s website and then cross-referencing them with Google Trends state data for the last 10 years to see which state is more likely to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer than Frosty the Snowman.
Among the findings of the 20 films, Home Alone came out on top with nine states making it their No. 1 choice, followed by Elf which is the favorite of eight states. There is no surprise that Connecticut’s favorite film is Christmas in Connecticut. Two of the movies listed on AMC didn’t make it as any state’s favorite: Holiday Inn (1942) and A Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).
By and large, it was discovered that those living in the south preferred comedies and cartoons, and the more slapstick, the better. Those living in New England and the North prefer the classics, the Atlantic Seaboard and The Great Lakes like the snowy scenes from Home Alone and Elf, the Midwest prefers National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and those living in the West are fans of stranger fare like Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Here is complete breakdown of the 18 Christmas movies found most popular by state:
- A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina
- A Christmas Carol (1984): South Dakota
- A Christmas Story (1983): Utah
- Bad Santa (2003): West Virginia
- Christmas in Connecticut (1945): Connecticut
- Elf (2003): Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin
- Frosty the Snowman (1969): Montana
- Home Alone (1990) Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Virginia
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1965): Wyoming
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000): Mississippi
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1946): Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, New York
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947): Alaska, Delaware, Maryland
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989): Alabama, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): Maine
- Scrooged (1988): Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Washington
- The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico
- The Santa Clause (1994): Idaho
- White Christmas (1954): Vermont
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The Street did a little research to see which holiday films where the least popular Christmas movies in the last 40 years. If their report, they found that the year 2000 was the last one where a “full-on holiday movie” was a top grossing movie. Before that, it was 1994’s The Santa Clause that made big money. That’s not too surprising given that films that we consider to be classics today like It’s a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story were box office failures when they came out. However, the following pale in comparison with the worst, making just $689 at the box office.
The list of the 25 least popular holiday films include:
- Everybody’s Fine (2009) $9.2 million
- Nothing Like the Holidays (2009) $7.5 million
- Black Nativity (2013) $7 million
- Trapped in Paradise (1994) $6 million
- The Perfect Holiday (2007) $5.8 million
- Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas (2014) $2.8 million
- The Christmas Candle (2013) $2.2 million
- The Nutcracker (1993) $2.1 million
- The Nutcracker Prince (1990) $1.8 million
- A Christmas Tale (2008) $1.1 million
- Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (1986) $781,727
- Christmas in the Clouds (2005) $279,225
- Noelle (2007) $257,868
- Rare Exports (2010) $236,347
- Santa With Muscles (1996) $220,198
- The Nutcracker in 3D (2010) $195,459
- Station Nord (2002) $171,400
- Christmas Eve (2015) $91,302
- Will it Snow for Christmas? (1997) $51,950
- The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012) $50,292
- Happy Christmas (2014) $30,312
- Silent Night (2012) $14,567
- Christmas at Maxwell’s (2006) $12,781
- All is Bright (2013) $4,556
- Christmas in Wonderland (2008) $689
[Featured Image by Marcus Ingram/Getty Images]
