'The Grinch' Passes 'Home Alone' as Highest Grossing Holiday Movie

For someone who doesn't love Christmas, The Grinch has struck a chord with audiences and has surpassed a classic family film in the process on the all-time holiday list.

This latest interpretation of The Grinch comes from Illumination (Despicable Me 3) and Universal and stars Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role. The film has continued to bring in audiences throughout the holiday season, cruising to a $500 million dollar worldwide box office. That puts it ahead of Home Alone, which brought in $476 million back in 1990, making it the top-grossing holiday movie ever (via Variety).

Those box office totals also make it Universal's sixth film to cross over half a billion, joining Despicable Me 2 and 3, Minions, Sing, and The Secret Life of Pets. Odds are The Secret Life of Pets 2, which comes out later this year, will be the seventh.

It doesn't hurt that Dr. Seuss' The Grinch only cost $75 million to make, increasing its profit margin considerably, not to mention all the endorsement and advertising opportunities it could take advantage of. This was a home run for Universal, so we wouldn't be surprised to see a sequel somewhere down the line.

You can check out the official description for The Grinch below.

"Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch lends his voice to the infamous Grinch, who lives a solitary life inside a cave on Mt. Crumpet with only his loyal dog, Max, for company. With a cave rigged with inventions and contraptions for his day-to-day needs, the Grinch only sees his neighbors in Who-ville when he runs out of food.

Each year at Christmas they disrupt his tranquil solitude with their increasingly bigger, brighter and louder celebrations. When the Whos declare they are going to make Christmas three times bigger this year, the Grinch realizes there is only one way for him to gain some peace and quiet: he must steal Christmas. To do so, he decides he will pose as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, even going so far as to trap a lackadaisical misfit reindeer to pull his sleigh.

Meanwhile, down in Who-ville, Cindy-Lou Who—a young girl overflowing with holiday cheer—plots with her gang of friends to trap Santa Claus as he makes his Christmas Eve rounds so that she can thank him for help for her overworked single mother. As Christmas approaches, however, her good-natured scheme threatens to collide with the Grinch's more nefarious one. Will Cindy-Lou achieve her goal of finally meeting Santa Claus? Will the Grinch succeed in silencing the Whos' holiday cheer once and for all?"

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch is in theaters now.