Top 10 Most Successful Christmas Movies Ever (Ranking by Box Office Totals)

Christmas movies are dominant forces in theaters, and the proof is in the box office numbers. While TV specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are regular favorites for many this time of year, watching a full-on feature film set during the holidays just feels extra special. Over the years, Christmas movies have grown to be lucrative ventures for movie studios. Hundreds of millions of dollars are to be made if a film connects with audiences and becomes an annual favorite. Perfect examples of this are the 10 top highest-grossing Christmas movies of all time, which box office website The Numbers has calculated.

It should be noted that the following list isn’t adjusted for inflation, so some older films, like White Christmas and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, don’t get that benefit. Also, films that aren’t fully Christmas movies, like Die Hard, Iron Man 3 and Greta Gerwig’s 2019 Little Women adaptation, are not included. Scroll through to see the top 10 highest-grossing Christmas movies at the box office.

10. ‘The Santa Clause’ (1994) – $190,506,000

9. ‘The Holiday’ (2006) – $204,920,447

8. ‘Elf’ (2003) – $224,912,848

7. ‘Rise of the Guardians’ (2012) – $306,941,670

6. ‘The Polar Express’ (2004) – $312,183,437

5. ‘Disney’s A Christmas Carol’ (2009) – $315,709,697

4. ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ (2000) – $345,445,403

3. ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ (1992) – $358,994,850

2. ‘Home Alone’ (1990) – $476,680,911

1. ‘The Grinch’ (2018) – $512,285,215