Die Hard for the holidays

Among the many traditions that we enjoy at the end of each year, gathering to watch holiday movies is one that most households can agree on. What many can’t agree on, however, is whether Die Hard is a holiday movie.

As with any challenge or question, the best way to find clarity is with data. And with an abundance of entertainment data to assist, Gracenote has the ability to put personal opinions aside and offer an unbiased answer to put the long-standing debate to rest (for a long winter’s nap).

So, should your favorite streaming service include Die Hard in its holiday film recommendations?

No, it should not. From a data perspective, it takes more than simply taking place during the holidays to classify a film as a Christmas movie.

While streaming services can use genres for their recommendation algorithms, the future of personalized content discovery is dependent on the wide range of other data about movies and TV shows. Attributes like mood, theme, character descriptions, scenario, subject and time period can all be used to better connect with the right audiences. This data can also help advertisers with CTV targeting.

In the case of Die Hard, the metadata behind the Bruce Willis-led classic from 1988 includes 40 different attributes that recommendation engines can use to help connect it with the right viewers. Video descriptors like heroism, one-man army, heist, skyscrapers, estranged spouses, rescue effort and hostages provide platforms and publishers with an array of details that can be used to engage the right audience. But none of them substantiate Die Hard as a holiday film.

Holiday classification notwithstanding, Die Hard maintains elite status in the film world. It maintains a 94% Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes, and it continues to draw sizable viewing numbers—even when today’s big streamers offer viewers more than 550k programs to choose from. In 2023, U.S. audiences spent 809 million minutes¹ watching Die Hard—enough to place it among the 500 most-streamed movies of the year (it came in at No. 434).

Streaming viewers have an abundance of holiday movies to choose from

Even without Die Hard in the mix, there’s no shortage of Christmas films to choose from. According to Gracenote Global Video Data, there are more than 1,100 Christmas-themed feature films and more than 1,300 Christmas-themed TV movies available to viewers.

Given the digital nature of today’s media, movies aren’t limited to having only one genre. Most of the holiday movies in Gracenote’s database have at least two; some have as many as four; a select few have as many as seven. But robust content experiences and recommendation algorithms need more than genre information to engage audiences with what they’re looking for. 

Descriptive metadata, especially when it’s enriched and normalized, is the key to delivering the right movie to the right viewer. It can also make or break a family movie night. That’s because simply having a holiday genre doesn’t mean a movie is appropriate for everyone.

The 2022 film Violent Night and the 2003 film Love Actually are good examples. While both are holiday movies, they each feature an array of attributes (adult language, nudity, strong violence) that suggest they might not be ideal choices for the whole family. These attributes are, however, quite appealing to many viewers, as these films were the 118th and 337th most-streamed of 2023¹, respectively.

From a metadata perspective, few movies have more holiday characteristics than the 2003 film Elf. One of the film’s four genres is holiday, and eight of its 42 video descriptors are holiday related (nine if you include ‘snowball fights’), providing search and recommendation engines with ample information to enable rich content discovery journeys for even the most discriminating audiences. The Will Ferrell-led modern classic is also a fan favorite, as it was the 30th most-streamed film¹ last year.

Despite the notoriety of many popular holiday movies, streaming services have the unique ability to help audiences discover new titles alongside their annual favorites. Amid the growing proliferation of available services, churn rates are growing even though time spent streaming is rising. Simon-Kucher’s Global Streaming Study 2024, found that while 87% of audiences are streaming the same or more than last year, the abundance of new services has caused the intent to cancel a subscription among viewers higher in every market except the Netherlands and Spain.

Rich content discovery experiences and personalized recommendations can help streaming services engage existing audiences both during the holiday season and throughout the year as they grow their individual content libraries, which is another factor that can make it challenging for viewers to find something to watch—regardless of whether they think Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

Note

1. Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings; Nielsen National TV Panel