We all have our favourite things about Christmas. Sweet mince pies. Dressing everything up in tinsel. Oh, and of course, those terrible festive films to get you in the Christmas mood. So, we here at Verve Search started wondering: what are the most popular Christmas films out there after all?

Whether you like to settle down with a romance like The Holiday, a close-to-the-mark choice like Bad Santa, or a heart-warmer like The Snowman – debating the best Christmas films remains a strong holiday pastime. Nobody’s going to blame you if you secretly like to put on Die Hard (it technically IS a Christmas film).

To get down to the nitty-gritty of it, using data analysis we took the top 33 Christmas films from IMDB and compared how often they’re searched against their average rating to get a rundown of the ultimate list of Christmas films, including this year’s exciting new releases.

So, light a little candle, snuggle up under a blanket and crack open the Celebrations for the most popular Christmas films ever. Please, there will be no Scrooges here today…

What are the most popular Christmas films of today?

Without further ado, take a look at our ultimate Christmas film rundown. These films go as far back as the 1940s, to the latest releases from this year. They are ranked the highest-rated and most widely searched films to date and will make for a cracking binge on the sofa.

Now, there are some festive favourites that we don’t need to tell you about. Home Alone and Love Actually come first and second respectively, with an average global search volume of around 800,000 searches. That’s a lot even for the most popular choices!

Later down the list, you’ll spot family-friendly films like The Christmas Chronicles, Elf and The Snowman, just to name a few. Can’t say we’re surprised with these, with many homes most likely flicking these on for some light-hearted Christmas relief.

But some anti-Christmas classics also appear in the rankings. Coming as high as third is the old 1984 favourite, Gremlins, which some even call a horror. Following just a little behind in fifth is the highly debated Christmas action classic Die Hard with Bruce Willis.

Some interesting (and maybe even surprising) top-rankers in this category.

And some festive breakthroughs for 2024…

Every year sees a wave of new Christmas films released for the season, but they can’t all make it into the annual festive rotation. So, it’s safe to say that these 2024 releases make newsworthy features, with three choices appearing in the rankings.

If you’re shaking in your boots during horror movies, look away now because Terrifier 3 came fourth overall, with over 465,000 global searches. With its controversial reviews, the extremely gory slasher film (which had people walking out of cinemas) somehow makes for a ‘Christmas’ film, where protagonist Art the Clown transitions into quite the Santa Claus.

This one’s leading because it’s made so many waves in searches online for its bone-chilling scenes and gory details. So, even though it’s a total horror, it’s still showing up as a popular Christmas choice. Watch if you dare…

Then, Dwayne Johnson stars alongside Chris Evans for action-packed blockbuster Red One, with a budget of $250 million. Whilst some critics call it a ‘flop’ of the season, it’s got an average 6.9 rating, so it may make for an easy watch where the North Pole’s Head of Security (Johnson) has to team up with a bounty hunter (Evans) on a mission to save Christmas.

There always has to be at least one big blockbuster a year, this year it jut goes to The Rock.

And, last but not least, the most meme-able Christmas film of the season is none other than Hot Frosty. If you’ve watched it already, then you might know why it’s making such a big impact on searches.

Starring Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls) and Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek), the film centres around a snowman who comes to life. Slightly hard to digest, cheesy and completely ridiculous, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a Christmas romance. You may want to wash this one down with a mulled wine due to its cheese-factor…

Which one takes the (Christmas) cake for the highest rated?

Now now, our head data elves know that just because something is highly-searched doesn’t actually make it a good film to watch. If you look closely at the rankings, there is a massive difference between what’s most searched and what’s ranked high in ratings.

Overall, audience and critic ratings end up around the 70% mark or rated at around 7.25 (out of ten) on average on both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes for many of these Christmas films.

The highest ranked overall is none other than cult classic It’s a Wonderful Life, from as far back as 1946 and also our earliest film on the list. With an average of 8.6, maybe the 40s just did Christmas better?

Other above-average favourites include Die Hard, Klaus, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Snowman. We’ll let you decide your favourites from those choices yourselves!

On the other end of the scale with a mere 5.5 average rating is none other than the breakthrough 2024 film, Hot Frosty. Snowmen really should stay in the snow, after all.

And, this shows that whilst Christmas films can be just as cosy as they are cute, that doesn’t always mean that they’re a groundbreaking piece of cinematography – and, that’s okay. Right?

Where can you watch Christmas films on streaming platforms?

There may be nothing worse than sitting in front of the telly and not being able to find a film you want to watch on any platform. Will it be on Netflix? Amazon Prime? Hold on a second – you might even have to rent it.

Nobody wants to be doing that, so to make it easy for you we’ve rounded up where you might find these most-wanted films and on what streaming platform they’re on.

Truth is, your best bet is to get your hands on a Disney+ subscription this Christmas, with eight films being available, followed by Prime Video with six and then Netflix with four.

With that being said, you can purchase or rent all but six films on Amazon Prime Video, so you may not have to get the DVD player out after all…

To wrap up

Christmas movies are more than just entertainment – they’re a part of the whole holiday experience. From the nostalgia of The Snowman to the cult appeal of Die Hard, these choices are just as sweet as the Christmas treats.

With over 800,000 global searches for the most nostalgic Home Alone and ratings reaching averages as high as 8 out of 10, a Christmas film can create an impact. No matter where your favourite may sit in the table rankings, it’s likely that you may find yourself watching at least one of these films throughout December.

While traditional choices might dominate in popularity, newer 2024 releases like Terrifier 3 and Red One show how diverse these Christmas films have become, covering feel-good action to full-blown slasher horror. Meanwhile, Hot Frosty may not win any awards with its 5.5 rating, but it shows that these can be conversation starters (around the dinner table or just in general, that’s your choice).

And, although streaming options may not cover every title, there’s no shortage of ways to bring festive cheer into your home this year. So, happy watching! May your season be merry, bright and full of arguments about what’s the best Christmas film…

Verve Search’s most festive Christmas films

And, because the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear, we’re sharing our favourite Christmas films straight from yours truly, Verve Search.

Amber Carnegie – Creative Lead: Muppet’s Christmas Carol

“It’s got to be Muppet’s Christmas Carol. Not only is it the only retelling of A Christmas Carol to quote as close to Dickens as possible but the incredible soundtrack and the idea that Micheal Cain is running around with all those puppets tickles me. Also, the ghost of Christmas present is literally the epitome of Christmas!”

Tonje Odegard – Outreach Director: Love Actually

“Mine has to be Love Actually as I’ve been watching it every Christmas with my family since it came out in 2003, and Christmas can’t kick off without a little cry over Emma Thomson holding back her tears to the soundtrack of Joni Mitchell. After my partner came on the scene, he also learnt to love it and we now watch it together, quoting almost every line off by heart (“8 is a lot of legs, David”). It’s so British and funny and cute and annoying and I love it, love it, love it!”

Ben McNeil – Outreach Specialist: Home Alone

“Home Alone is mine, for the same reason that I’ve been watching it every year since I was very young. It takes me back in time to my childhood and makes me feel very nostalgic. Not to mention the countless hilarious moments. The vibe, atmosphere and music of the film never fails to make me feel Christmassy!”

Danae Stavros – Outreach Executive: The Holiday

“Mine is The Holiday. I’ve been watching it pretty much every year since I was a kid. It’s really funny but emotional at the same time. Hot characters are a bonus, and I like that it’s not overly focused on Xmas, but just enough to get you in the spirit.”

Giovanna Castaneda – Outreach Executive: Home Alone 2

“Home Alone 2 (when he’s lost in New York). I’ve been watching it since I was a child with my cousins, and we even played as if we were in the film! It wouldn’t be Christmas for me if I didn’t watch it. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it always cracks me up.”

Methodology and Sources

For our ‘Christmas films’ analysis, we picked out the most popular Christmas films on IMDB, searching for those that had over 100k reviews including new releases from this year. IMDB average scores were then compared to Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores to create an average rating.

We then checked where the films were available to stream or purchase digitally. The streaming services considered were within the UK libraries on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, as well as purchase options on Amazon Prime Video.

To consider Global Search Volume (GSV), these films were searched through Ahrefs keyword analysis to determine which were most popular. GSV shows how many times per month, on average, people search for the target keyword across all countries in the Ahrefs database.

Data accurate as of 2nd December 2024.

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Data. The not-so-secret weapon of most businesses. It’s far more than just numbers in a spreadsheet – it has the power to reveal incredible stories and newsworthy content – but if you’re at the beginning of your data analysis journey, it can be daunting to know where to begin.

Fret not, though. Let us guide you through the best ways of unlocking the potential of your data.

There are so many ways to streamline and enhance your analysis to ensure your numbers are rock solid. With these processes, your PR campaigns can become storytelling masterpieces that journalists and readers can’t help but engage with.

From understanding what your campaign objectives are to having the best data tools for the job, it’s all about what you know and how you use it.

Here at Verve Search, data is the cornerstone of our digital PR work, creating original and exciting content that is bespoke to each brand we work with. Our award-winning campaigns are proof that good data and analysis are imperative if you want to make an impact. 

Here’s exactly what we do collect, process, and analyse data for our digital PR campaigns.

 

Step 1: Campaign Objectives

Remember those objectives we just mentioned? They should be the first steps towards creating streamlined data campaigns.

But to achieve your campaign objectives you must first navigate what they are. Identifying clear and measurable goals can help focus and guide your analysis more effectively.

This involves asking questions like:

• What problems are you trying to solve? – This depends on the idea as well as client input.
• What metrics are best suited to the analysis? –This will depend on the angles you expect to pull out from the data and what you think will appeal to journalists the most.
• What is the time frame of the project? – This will impact the scope of your campaign.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be well on your way to understanding what you need to do to get there.

 

Step 2: Data Collection

Once you have laid out your campaign objectives, now is the time to make them come to life with data collection. In data-driven campaigns, there are countless data sources that can be used as the basis of the idea – and they often require different methods of collection.

Clients may offer up their internal data or you may have to go scraping the web to create your dataset. It’s useful to know what criteria make a good quality source while gauging whether they are suitable for your campaign, as well as how you can use them to your advantage and how long it will take to gather the data from them.

Looking for potential data sources that don’t require web scraping? Here are some examples:

Government Websites

Government websites like gov.uk or usa.gov hold extensive amounts of publicly available data across a broad range of topics and industries; all you need to do is hit download on whichever file you need.

For example, we leveraged government housing and land registry data to create Forever Homes and Priced Out Property campaigns. This created relevant, trustworthy, and newsworthy content that generated hundreds of links, whilst also keeping it super relevant for the brand.  

APIs

Many websites offer an ‘API’ (Application Programming Interface) which gives access to their data in a clearly formatted and relatively accessible way.

For example, the Spotify API is free and all you need to do is sign up for a developer account to have access to the API keys that are required.

There are a few different ways to incorporate an API for data collection, but for one example, Python was our tool of choice. With it, we collected data for a music-focused campaign for a language tutoring client.

For them, we produced a lyric study which looked at the number of syllables in rappers’ songs. It relied heavily on Spotify’s API, as it allowed us to access a variety of metrics ranging from general song/artist information to scores of different elements of a song. In this case, “speechiness” was the most important metric to score how wordy each track was.

Freedom of Information Requests

Why not request information from a public authority? Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are a great way to gather credible data by leveraging your right to information. You have the right to ask for recorded information held by public authorities including government departments, the local council, and the police and fire services. All this information is free to access.

Keep in mind that if you’re contacting departments from all over the country, you will need to carefully craft your request so that the data you receive is in a consistent format. This makes it much easier when it comes to analysis.

Surveys

If you want truly original data, there is no better collection method than an organic survey. Carefully crafted questions will yield useful results and easily analysable data.

We leveraged first-hand survey data to create a campaign focused on female health for a fem-tech brand, analysing responses from around 10,000 users. The results yielded many headline-worthy statistics, and the real-life opinions and answers were fundamental to the campaign.

Just keep in mind that collecting first-hand data like this can often be expensive, so make sure to bake that cost into your campaign’s budget.

 

Step 3: Data Processing

Before you can start to analyse the heaps of data you’ve collected, it’s key to first process your data.

Processing is the most important step and often referred to as ‘cleaning your data’. It ensures your analysis will be smooth and produces accurate results by making everything you’ve collected consistent.

The two main tools that will be referenced – and that we use continuously – will be Excel and Pandas (a data analysis module of Python, particularly useful for larger datasets that may sometimes crash Excel).

Remove duplicates

Excel’s built-in ‘remove duplicate’ function can do this for you. Alternatively, the Python library, Pandas has a similar function (drop_duplicates). More on the best data tools later…

Checking for errors or missing values

Pivot tables, built into both Excel and Pandas, are your best friend for getting an overview of your data and easily checking issues before analysis.

They allow you to check for anomalies and outliers within your dataset and summarise key metrics while also allowing you to filter and separate different columns for analysis. Below is an example of raw data for a potential campaign, which as you can see, would be difficult to analyse in its current form…

This is why we put it into a pivot table, as shown below. By selecting the individual columns to analyse, it is in a much more digestible format to pick out insights.

This specific table shows the number of international artists within the singles charts of each country and many more columns can be joined together with this, such as comparing Tempo scores by country to see which one has the most upbeat music.

Credit: Verve Search

Checking for and removing anomalies

Anomalies can disrupt analysis and interfere with useful results. They may occur for all kinds of reasons, but the most common is incorrect data collection. As mentioned above, pivot tables can help to identify anomalies, or even using Excel’s filter function: filter by ascending or descending order and you can see anomalous pieces of data, depending on your dataset.

Transforming

Any unchecked formatting may cause issues down the road, so check that your data is in the same format. Double-check that your columns are the data type you want them to be, including numbers, text and dates.

Sometimes numbers will be imported as text and need to be changed. If working with multiple data sources, they will need to be uniform across the board to prevent having to continuously refer to the original datasets to avoid confusion further along the analysis process.

 

Step 4: Data Analysis

With processing complete, you’re now ready to dive into data analysis.

Firstly, refer to your objectives. Check the initial goals to make sure your analysis still aligns with them and whether they’re still achievable with what you’ve got.

Make sure to explore your data. Most analysis can be done with pivot tables, either in Excel or Python.

Then visualise your data. Once you have dived into the data with pivot tables, you can use them to create charts and graphs that clearly represent the data. Your visualisations should make it obvious to anyone who takes a glance what the data is showing (refer to the data vis catalogue for inspiration).

Finally, it’s time to tell a story. Once trends have been identified and visualisations have been created, crafting a narrative around these findings will be what sets your campaign apart.

Pull out key statistics and create headline-worthy points from your analysis. Focus on making your points digestible for everyone, like opting for percentages rather than raw numbers as this will be clearer to both journalists and readers.

Data Analysis

Just like Batman, data analysts have a variety of tools in their utility belt. Below are the ones that we use the most day-to-day, to help us with steps in processes from planning to data analysis.

Excel

Hate it or love it, Excel is a necessary tool used for viewing, interpreting, and analysing data. Using pivot tables form a large part of the analysis process which is one of many useful functions that Excel contains.

Python Interpreter

To write and run Python scripts, you need a Python interpreter. This is always down to personal preference, but we prefer using Jupyter Notebook/JupyterLab to run code in a more modular fashion as opposed to a whole script at once. Not your cup of tea? Look to alternatives including VS Code and Pycharm.

Python

Python is a powerful programming language that can be used in various situations, specifically the scraping and analysis process for data analysts. By leveraging the power of the many libraries within Python, you can collect and manipulate large datasets easily to create visualisations.

The most-used libraries for data collection are BeautifulSoup, Requests and Selenium – and a combination of these can be used to access and scrape websites.

In the same vein, the most common library for analysis is Pandas, in which you can create data frames to contain and manipulate your data before exporting the results to Excel.

You can create visualisations using the libraries Matplotlib, Seaborn or Plotly, check out the documentation for more detailed information.

SQL

When working with large datasets, an SQL database can be useful in storing and accessing data. You can connect to a database through Python and store any scraped data directly. MySQL or SQLite are good starting points.

Data Visualisation Tool

 

Looking for more a powerful method for creating visualisations? Platforms such as Tableau or PowerBI can be useful to create more interactive charts, which can allow for a different type of storytelling.

AI

Whether you’re ready to accept it or not, AI and Large Language Models such as ChatGPT are here to stay. They’re useful when used correctly, and especially when assisting with code or even its built-in analysis capabilities.

However, be careful: it’s not recommended to directly input your data into these tools as they may contain sensitive information. Instead, use it to create Python code, or give you a more general guide towards the best methods for analysis.

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Interested in our content marketing and digital PR services, including data processing and analysis? Get in touch.