Disney+ Holiday Classic Blows up on Netflix, Hulu and Other Streaming Services

After two years of intermittent quarantines, the streaming statistics from this holiday season show that people still aren’t afraid of being Home Alone. According to a report by Nielsen, Home Alone was the most-watched movie across all streaming services in December, including new releases. It just goes to show how far nostalgia can go.

Home Alone is available to stream on Disney+, where it was reportedly watched for over 307 million cumulative minutes between Dec. 6 and Dec. 12. The throwback actually beat out the new Netflix original film Red Notice, the streaming premiere of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and more recent holiday fare like The Christmas Chronicles, to name a few. Home Alone wasn’t even the only throwback on the list – at No. 2 was Elf, which is streaming on Hulu, at No. 9 was The Santa Clause on Netflix and at No. 10 was Home Alone 2: Lost in New York on Disney+.

In this case, the Home Alone franchise may have been helped along by the brand new installment Home Sweet Home Alone, which some referred to as a reboot. However, Home Sweet Home Alone has generally negative reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes. This disappointment could still be responsible for sending viewers to the original, but not in the way the filmmakers intended.

The first Home Alone movie premiered in 1990 and became an instant classic. It stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, a snarky 8-year-old boy who is accidentally left at home while his large family flies off for a holiday vacation. Believing he has magically wished their absence into existence, Kevin sets about taking more responsibility for his life – mostly in the form of slapstick booby traps aimed at would-be burglars.

The movie grossed nearly $470 million in theaters, so it should come as no surprise that it is one of the most enduring works of the Christmas movie genre. Still, it shares the list with relatively recent releases – particularly from Netflix, where Christmas has become one of the biggest seasons for new content. Nielsen’s list also includes A Boy Called Christmas on Netflix, The Power of The Dog on Netflix and The Shack on Netflix.

All four Home Alone movies streaming now on Disney+. Hopefully, they’ll still be there in December when audiences seem to need them most.