With Christmas fast approaching, a new study by automotive experts Vanarama has revealed the most holly-jolly rides that are featured in the highest-grossing Christmas films. Including family favorite’s such as Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually and The Holiday.
The research shows the carmakers that feature most frequently in the 20 highest-grossing Christmas films, as well as revealing which film has the highest number of cars in it! In addition to delving into the car body styles and car models used the most in this genre.
Ford is the most festive car manufacturer of all time
American brand Ford has been revealed as the most festive car manufacturer, featuring the most in the 20 highest-grossing Christmas films analyzed.
Ford is featured 68 times in the top 20 films, with appearances in 18 out of the 20 Christmas films. The Christmas film titles that Ford featured the most in were Christmas with the Kranks and Gremlins, which both had 10 Ford cars in each. The two films which Ford didn’t appear in were The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3.
Top car manufacturers sleighing scenes in Christmas films
| Manufacturer | Total appearances in Christmas films | |
| 1 | Ford | 68 |
| 2 | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 3 | Toyota | 20 |
| 4 | Volkswagen | 16 |
| 5 | Dodge | 15 |
| 6 | BMW | 12 |
| 7 | Lincoln | 11 |
| – | Mercedes-Benz | 11 |
| 8 | Buick | 10 |
| – | Honda | 10 |
| – | Nissan | 10 |
| 9 | Hyundai | 9 |
| 10 | Audi | 7 |
The second most used car manufacturer in Christmas films is Chevrolet, making 39 appearances which is a significant 29 times less than Ford.
Chevrolet cars are featured in 14 out of the 20 Christmas films analyzed, with the brand making the most appearances in Home Alone 2 in which a total of 7 Chevrolet vehicles are featured. Other Christmas films that feature Chevrolet include Die Hard, Office Christmas Party and Love Actually.
In third place is Toyota which is featured 20 times, another significant drop of 19 compared to second-place car manufacturer Chevrolet. The Christmas film that features Toyota vehicles most is Christmas with the Kranks, which has five Toyota cars in the film. Overall Toyota is featured in 11 out of the 20 highest-grossing Christmas films analyzed in Vanarama’s research.
Christmas with the Kranks boasts the merriest motor lineup
The research also analyzed the total number of cars featured in each Christmas film and it was Christmas with the Kranks that came out on top with 43 cars. Following closely behind this was Home Alone 2 which features 41 cars and in third place is Love Actually featuring 35 cars.
It may come as a surprise to some that Die Hard didn’t make the top three, with it being an action film you would expect to see a high number of cars featured due to high-speed car chases. However, Die Hard did come in fifth place with 28 cars in total featured.
Ford’s Crown Victoria takes center stage in Christmas films
The vehicle model that was featured the most in the 20 Christmas films analyzed was the Ford Crown Victoria, appearing a total of 13 times.
Interestingly the Ford Crown Victoria is widely recognized as a police interceptor vehicle in the US, highlighting how many Christmas films have a common theme of redemption. The Christmas film that featured the most Ford Crown Victoria’s was Elf which has five throughout the movie.
The second most used vehicle in Christmas films is the Ford Ecoline which is featured nine times across the 20 films analyzed. The Ecoline is part of the Ford E-Series which is a market leader range of vans. The Christmas film that has the most Ford Ecoline vehicles is Die Hard, other Christmas films that feature the model include Home Alone 1 and 2, The Santa Clause and Fred Claus.
Sedans take the leading role as the go-to wheels for film directors in Christmas films
Vanarama’s research also analyzed the car body styles used in the highest-grossing Christmas films and it was sedans that were the clear winner.
Across the 20 films, Sedans were featured a whopping 156 times, this is 121 times more than van/MPV style vehicles which were the runner-up, being featured 35 times. Closely following this is coupé which are featured 33 times.
Methodology: Vanarama analyzed 20 of the highest-grossing Christmas films. IMCDB was then used to analyze the car manufacturers featured in the films. If a film did not feature any cars according to IMCDB, they were not used in the dataset. In total, the study looked at 367 specific models across the 20 films to work out the most popular manufacturer, model and car body style.
Categories: Automotive Talk Stuff, Christmas Season Stuff
