It’s taken 28 years, but the Macaulay Culkin-headlined Christmas classic Home Alone has finally been dethroned as the highest-grossing holiday movie of all time by Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s Dr. Seuss adaptation The Grinch.
The animated movie has grossed $500.6 million at the worldwide box office, which – not accounting for inflation – puts it ahead of Home Alone’s $476.7 million global tally.
Home Alone still retains the domestic crown however, having banked $285.8 million in North America during its original run, compared to The Grinch’s $269.8 million (for comparison, the 2000 live-action adaptation How the Grinch Stole Christmas earned $260 million domestically, with a worldwide total of $345.1 million).
SEE ALSO: Read our review of The Grinch here
Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch lends his voice to the infamous Grinch, who lives a solitary life inside a cave on Mt. Crumpet with only his loyal dog, Max, for company. With a cave rigged with inventions and contraptions for his day-to-day needs, the Grinch only sees his neighbours in Who-ville when he runs out of food.
Each year at Christmas they disrupt his tranquil solitude with their increasingly bigger, brighter and louder celebrations. When the Whos declare they are going to make Christmas three times bigger this year, the Grinch realizes there is only one way for him to gain some peace and quiet: he must steal Christmas. To do so, he decides he will pose as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, even going so far as to trap a lackadaisical misfit reindeer to pull his sleigh.
Meanwhile, down in Who-ville, Cindy-Lou Who-a young girl overflowing with holiday cheer-plots with her gang of friends to trap Santa Claus as he makes his Christmas Eve rounds so that she can thank him for help for her overworked single mother. As Christmas approaches, however, her good-natured scheming threatens to collide with the Grinch’s more nefarious one. Will Cindy-Lou achieve her goal of finally meeting Santa Claus? Will the Grinch succeed in silencing the Whos’ holiday cheer once and for all?
