Tim Allen’s Critically-Panned 21-Year-Old John Grisham Movie Adaptation Is Now Dominating Streaming Charts
Christmas with the Kranks is now dominating streaming charts. The 2004 Christmas comedy stars Tim Allen and is based on the 2001 novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, representing a notable departure from the author’s typical legal thrillers, such as A Time to Kill (1989), The Firm (1991), The Pelican Brief (1992), and The Rainmaker (1995).
Now, 21 years after its release, Christmas with the Kranks ranks second on HBO Max’s Top 10 movies in the United States for today, December 17, per FlixPatrol. It ranks below It (2017) in first and above several other Christmas movies – including Elf, A Christmas Story Christmas, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and The Polar Express.
It Chapter Two, Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and The Conjuring: Last Rites also appear in the Top 10 movies.
Christmas with the Kranks also ranks seventh on HBO Max’s Top 10 overall chart in the United States, ranking below TV shows like IT: Welcome to Derry, Heated Rivalry, I Love LA, and above the movies A Christmas Story, Four Christmases, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Directed by Joe Roth, with a script written by Chris Columbus (Home Alone) based on the John Grisham novel, Christmas with the Kranks stars Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as a middle-aged couple who, much to their neighbors’ dismay, decide to abandon their usual holiday festivities after their daughter departs for the Peace Corps, until she suddenly announces she’s coming home for Christmas.
In addition to Emmy nominee Tim Allen (Home Improvement) and Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once), the cast also includes Oscar and Emmy nominee Dan Aykroyd (Driving Miss Daisy, Saturday Night Live), Erik Per Sullivan, Cheech Marin, Jake Busey, M. Emmet Walsh, Kevin Chamberlin, Elizabeth Franz, Austin Pendleton, Caroline Rhea, Patrick Breen, and Felicity Huffman.
Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as Luther and Nora Krank standing in the snow in Christmas with the Kranks
With an abysmal 5% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Christmas with the Kranks was panned by critics as a joyless and loud comedy that ultimately celebrates conformity rather than creativity or cheer. It wasn’t received much better by general audiences, resulting in a 40% score from that group, though it was a moderate box-office success that grossed $96.6 million worldwide against its $60 million budget.
However, in recent years, Christmas with the Kranks has been reappraised more positively by critics, including ScreenRant‘s Kayla Turner who, in 2023, named it one of the most underrated Christmas movies, calling it an “underappreciated modern Christmas classic” and a “hilarious satire on the madness of societal Christmas expectations,” noting that it delivers an “artful blend of timely humor and a heartwarming messaging about the importance of connection over commercialism.”
Release Date
November 24, 2004
Runtime
99 minutes
Director
Joe Roth
Writers
Chris Columbus
Producers
Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe, Michael Barnathan, Allegra Clegg
