35 Years Ago, A Timeless Christmas Classic Was Born At The Box Office

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

There are plenty of classic Christmas movies out there. The likes of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" have been staples of the holiday season for decades (and they're likely to remain so for decades more to come). Being in the annual Christmas movie business is good business. Just look at what Hallmark cranks out every year around the winter holidays. But the real money is in making that one movie that winds up in the rotation annually, becoming part of the larger cultural conversation surrounding Christmas.

In 1989, Warner Bros. released the third installment in the "Vacation" franchise following National Lampoon's "Vacation" in 1983 and "European Vacation" in 1985. Wisely, with this third entry, the property went the Christmas route and delivered one of the best Christmas movies of all time in the form of National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation." It was a success in its day, sure, but it also became a best-case scenario for targeting the holiday season with mass-appeal entertainment. Creating something timeless is damn near impossible, yet that's precisely what was accomplished here.

In this week's Tales from the Box Office, we're looking back at "Christmas Vacation" in honor of its 35th anniversary. We'll go over how it came to be, how a relatively unknown director wound up at the helm, why the movie was especially risky at the time, what happened once it hit theaters, what happened in the years after its initial release, and what lessons we can learn from it in the modern context. Let's dig in, shall we?

"Christmas Vacation" centers on Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase). The patriarch of the Griswold family just wants to have a perfect family Christmas with his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and children. As their extended family begins to arrive, however, things quickly go off the rails. By the time Clark's cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his family show up unannounced, perfection has gone out the window. To further complicate matters, Clark's boss rescinds a holiday bonus he was counting on. Hilarity ensues.

The legendary John Hughes, of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Breakfast Club" fame, wrote the original "Vacation," which was a sizable hit in its day. "European Vacation" less so, but Hughes had very little to do with that one. As such, WB wanted him back for a third installment. "The studio came to me and begged for another one, and I only agreed because I had a good story to base it on," Hughes explained in a 2000 interview with Lollipop Magazine. That story was titled "Christmas '59" and was published in a 1980 issue of the "National Lampoon."

Harold Ramis ("Ghostbusters") directed the first "Vacation" while Amy Heckerling ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High") helmed the sequel. Originally, Warner Bros. wanted Chris Columbus ("Adventures in Babysitting") to direct the Christmas-themed third entry. The only problem? Chevy Chase. Columbus needed work at the time and Hughes sent him the script. He responded to it and met with Chase. Unfortunately, as the director explained in a 2015 interview, Chase was less than kind:

"I went out to dinner with Chevy Chase. To be completely honest, Chevy treated me like dirt. But I stuck it out and even went as far as to shoot second unit. Some of my shots of downtown Chicago are still in the movie. Then I had another meeting with Chevy, and it was worse. I called John and said, 'There's no way I can do this movie. I know I need to work, but I can't do it with this guy.' John was very understanding."

Columbus would instead go on to direct "Home Alone." Things worked out fine for him, suffice it to say. Meanwhile, Chase's reputation was what it was at the time, but the film was going to happen and WB needed a director. Enter Jeremiah S. Chechik. He had helmed several music videos for bands like Hall & Oates but had yet to direct a feature film. His commercial work proved to be the key to getting his first movie job. In a 2011 interview, Chechik explained how Stanley Kubrick ("2001: A Space Odyssey") was indirectly responsible for him directing "Christmas Vacation":

""I had made these commercials that became quite iconic here in the U.S. They were very dark and sexy and sort of a little bit ahead of their time in terms of style. And what happened was they gained the notice of Kubrick, who had mentioned them as his favorite American filmmaking, ironically, in a New York Times article. By the Monday following the Sunday, the phone rang off the hook."

After taking some meetings around town, Chechik settled on the third installment in the "Vacation" franchise. It proved to be a wise decision as the film was a great success. Getting the film in the can was no easy task though. Aside from contending with Chase, who has long made it clear he doesn't care if his castmates think he's a jerk, Chechik had to wrangle a large ensemble cast in order to craft a film that was the right combination of funny and sweet. ("Christmas Vacation" was also one of "The Big Bang Theory" actor Johnny Galecki's first movies, as it happened.)

The project was also on a pretty tight schedule since filming didn't begin until March 1989. Chechik also had to ensure that Chase melted down on screen correctly to the delight of audience members during one of the movie's most famous moments. In a bit of creative thinking, the "Christmas Vacation" cast wore cue cards around their necks to ensure the scene went smoothly. Credit where credit is due, Chechik pulled it all together in the end.

While this movie wasn't as expensive as something like Tim Burton's 1989 box office smash "Batman," for example, it was still quite a bit more costly than the average studio comedy. As the New York Times in 1989 pointed out, "Five years ago, comedies and dramas were made for $10 million to $14 million. On the flip side, this holiday themed "Vacation" venture cost Warner Brothers "more than" $25 million. Mind you, that doesn't account for marketing. So, it was a relatively risky bet. Fortunately, it's one that paid off.

"Christmas Vacation" hit theaters in the post-Thanksgiving frame on December 1, 1989, helping to herald the arrival of the winter holiday season. It landed at number two on the charts with a very respectable $11.7 million, trailing "Back to the Future II" ($12.1 million), which was in its second weekend. That said, the late '80s were a very different time at the box office as the opening weekend wasn't everything. Beyond that, a Christmas movie to this day can hang around far longer than the average movie. That proved true here.

After spending another weekend in the number two spot, the holiday comedy ended up topping the charts in its third weekend, staying there through Christmas. Naturally, the film's run started winding down by the time the new year rolled around, but by then Warner Bros. had a hit on its hands. The expensive gamble panned out.

The third entry in the "Vacation" franchise finished its original run with $71.3 million domestically and, over the years, that total has grown to more than $74 million. International grosses have largely gone unreported, but anything further would be icing on the cake as the movie made nearly three times its production budget in an era when the home video market was far more robust than it is now.

Even without adjusting for inflation, "Christmas Vacation" ranks as one of the 40 biggest Christmas movies ever. If we adjust for inflation? It would have made around $180 million in today's dollars. That's almost unimaginable for a comedy in the streaming era, a time when so many entries in the genre are left to languish on streaming. In any event, that was just the tip of the iceberg for WB on this one.

For starters, "Christmas Vacation" has been released on VHS, DVD, Laserdisc, Blu-ray, and even got a 4K release in 2022. Aside from that, the film remains a staple of television to this day, regularly played all over cable around the holiday seasons. Over the years, the home video sales and syndication rights have surely made the studio a boat load of cash (especially given that the film had profited during its original theatrical run). Everything from then on has been extra icing on an already well-iced cake.

Even to this day, "Christmas Vacation" began trending on the Max streaming service right around Thanksgiving. It's like clockwork. No matter what the method, from VHS to VOD, people seek this movie out every year. It's such a part of the broader pop culture DNA that folks spent years trying to figure out just how big Clark's Christmas bonus would have been. "Christmas Vacation" is a classic in the way few movies can claim to be. In short, Warner Bros. and any other profit participants get to cash checks for this movie every year. 

Warner Bros. inevitably tried to chase this success as the years rolled on. There was 1997's "Vegas Vacation," which isn't remembered fondly by many viewers. More offensive to those who are aware of it is 2003's "Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure," itself broadly considered the franchise's low point. Fortunately, we never got a third installment and WB left well enough alone.

But looking back at the original, it was a small stroke of brilliance to take the "Vacation" series in this direction. The first two films were road trip adventures. Keeping the Griswolds at home was simple yet bold. It also didn't hurt getting Hughes back on board, as there's no substitute for genius. What's more, this is the story Hughes wanted to tell, and allowing him to lean into that rather than fight it was the right move.

As the studio learned, just because something was successful once doesn't mean it can be successful again. "Christmas Vacation" was, in many ways, lightning in a bottle. At a time when budgets for movies seem to be spiraling out of control, it's worth it for most studios to resist trend chasing wherever possible. If a rival studio had invested just as much money in a quirky family Christmas comedy, what are the odds it would have made as much money even at that time? It's a fool's errand.

Looking at any Christmas movie that's lucky enough to become a classic, more often than not, it's probably best to leave it at that. There's a reason "Elf" was a gigantic hit and also a reason we never got a sequel. Invest in other ideas and cash those checks every December.