Every year, the debate stirs up about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and at this stage, the argument has gotten more than a little tiresome. After all, the requirements to be accepted as part of the genre would surely involve having the festive season as a key driving force behind the plot, and if it wasn’t for the Nakatomi Plaza’s annual party, then John McClane wouldn’t be there in the first place.
Not only that, but it ends with a family reunited just before Christmas, which is a staple of virtually every holiday favorite, although McClane does admittedly leave a trail of bodies and debris in his wake before we get to that point. In any case, on an annual basis, viewing figures for Die Hard go through the roof during December as millions of fans revisit one of the greatest action films ever made, and John McTiernan’s classic even managed to crack the Top 10 at the domestic box office last weekend.
Of course, the industry is still in a state of disarray, and Die Hard just about made it onto the chart in tenth position after the remastered re-release raked in $189,000 over the weekend. That’s less than formulaic Liam Neeson thriller Honest Thief earned during its ninth week in theaters, though, while Will Ferrell’s Elf was also re-released and took fifth place with a haul of $320,000.
It’s also worth mentioning that almost everybody has a copy of Die Hard at home, so the fact that people were willing to head to their local cinema to check it out on the big screen when Coronavirus infections are reaching record numbers around the country just goes to show the enduring appeal of the movie.
