Most Profitable Holiday Movies of All Time

Much about the 2020 holiday season won’t be normal, but thankfully, festive films are still a thing. The arrival of the most wonderful time of the year means it’s time to start playing holiday movies on repeat — if you haven’t been already.

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Each year, new holiday movies are released, and the hits can bring in serious money. However, these films still face tough competition from old classics.

GOBankingRates conducted a study to determine the most profitable holiday movies of all time. Using data from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, Business Insider and Rotten Tomatoes to find out factors like the worldwide box-office gross and budget of the film, the movies are ranked by total profit.

No doubt, several of your favorites likely made the cut. Without further ado, here’s a look at the most profitable holiday movies of all time.

• Year released: 1989
• Worldwide box-office gross: $72.7 million
• Budget: $27 million
• Profit: $45.7 million
• Profit percentage: 169.3%

• Year released: 2015
• Worldwide box-office gross: $61.5 million
• Budget: $15 million
• Profit: $46.5 million
• Profit percentage: 310.3%

• Year released: 2011
• Worldwide box-office gross: $147.4 million
• Budget: $100 million
• Profit: $47.4 million
• Profit percentage: 47.4%

• Year released: 2003
• Worldwide box-office gross: $76.5 million
• Budget: $23 million
• Profit: $53.5 million
• Profit percentage: 232.6%

• Year released: 2018
• Worldwide box-office gross: $174 million
• Budget: $120 million
• Profit: $54 million
• Profit percentage: 45%

• Year released: 2013
• Worldwide box-office gross: $72.8 million
• Budget: $17 million
• Profit: $55.8 million
• Profit percentage: 328.5%

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• Year released: 2017
• Worldwide box-office gross: $84.3 million
• Budget: $20 million
• Profit: $64.3 million
• Profit percentage: 321.6%

• Year released: 2016
• Worldwide box-office gross: $114.5 million
• Budget: $45 million
• Profit: $69.5 million
• Profit percentage: 154.5%

• Year released: 1996
• Worldwide box-office gross: $129.8 million
• Budget: $60 million
• Profit: $69.8 million
• Profit percentage: 116.4%

• Year released: 1993
• Worldwide box-office gross: $91.5 million
• Budget: $18 million
• Profit: $73.5 million
• Profit percentage: 408.2%

• Year released: 2008
• Worldwide box-office gross: $164.1 million
• Budget: $80 million
• Profit: $84.1 million
• Profit percentage: 105.1%

• Year released: 2006
• Worldwide box-office gross: $110.8 million
• Budget: $12 million
• Profit: $98.8 million
• Profit percentage: 823.1%

• Year released: 2017
• Worldwide box-office gross: $130.6
• Budget: $28 million
• Profit: $102.6 million
• Profit percentage: 366.3%

• Year released: 2002
• Worldwide box-office gross: $172.9 million
• Budget: $65 million
• Profit: $107.9 million
• Profit percentage: 165.9%

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• Year released: 2017
• Worldwide box-office gross: $180.6 million
• Budget: $69 million
• Profit: $111.6 million
• Profit percentage: 161.8%

• Year released: 2009
• Worldwide box-office gross: $325.3 million
• Budget: $200 million
• Profit: $125.3 million
• Profit percentage: 62.6%

• Year released: 2004
• Worldwide box-office gross: $313.5 million
• Budget: $165 million
• Profit: $148.5 million
• Profit percentage: 90%

• Year released: 1995
• Worldwide box-office gross: $182.1 million
• Budget: $17 million
• Profit: $165.1 million
• Profit percentage: 971%

• Year released: 1994
• Worldwide box-office gross: $189.8 million
• Budget: $22 million
• Profit: $167.8 million
• Profit percentage: 762.9%

• Year released: 2003
• Worldwide box-office gross: $221.8 million
• Budget: $33 million
• Profit: $188.8 million
• Profit percentage: 572.3%

• Year released: 2003
• Worldwide box-office gross: $244.9 million
• Budget: $40 million
• Profit: $204.9 million
• Profit percentage: 512.3%

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• Year released: 2000
• Worldwide box-office gross: $345.1 million
• Budget: $123 million
• Profit: $222.1 million
• Profit percentage: 180.6%

• Year released: 1992
• Worldwide box-office gross: $365.2 million
• Budget: $28 million
• Profit: $337.2 million
• Profit percentage: 1,204.1%

• Year released: 2018
• Worldwide box-office gross: $511.6 million
• Budget: $75 million
• Profit: $436.6 million
• Profit percentage: 582.1%

• Year released: 1990
• Worldwide box-office gross: $477.1 million
• Budget: $18 million
• Profit: $459.1 million
• Profit percentage: 2,550.4%

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Methodology: In order to discover the most profitable holiday movies of all time, GOBankingRates first looked at IMDb’s “Top 25 Highest-Grossing Christmas Movies,” Business Insider’s “The 45 most successful Christmas movies of all time” and Rotten Tomatoes’ “The Best Christmas Movies of All-Time” to get a base of holiday movies to select from. For each movie in this cumulative list, GOBankingRates used Box Office Mojo to find (1) the year each movie was released; (2) the total worldwide profit for the movie; (3) the budget for the movie; (4) total profit, by taking factor (2) and subtracting factor (3); and (5) the return on investment (%) that the movie made against its budget. Only factor (4) was taken into account during ranking. All data was collected on and up to date as of Nov. 19, 2020.