Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1996 Christmas movie was a streaming hit on Prime Video

After spending the 80s and early 90s becoming the greatest action star of his generation and feuding with Sylvester Stallone over the titleArnold Schwarzenegger spent the latter half of the ’90s trying to prove that he could whip up charming family fare — and you wouldn’t know that he could. Of course, the man who came from a small Austrian town and conquered bodybuilding, married a Kennedy, became a movie star and had a successful career in US politics was never going to struggle with something as trivial as career rebranding. So 90s kids were treated to all kinds of surprisingly decent family comedy, from Kindergarten Cop to the Christmas favorite Jingle All Way.

Don’t let it happen 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes rating is deceiving you: “Jingle All the Way” not only captivated children of my generation, it also had something for adults, tapping into the rampant commercialism that turned Christmas from a time of peace and togetherness into a frenzied scramble for the last toy. In my day it was Power Rangers and Pokémon, not to mention Tickle Me Elmo. For Schwarzenegger’s Howard Langston, it was Turbo Man, the latest action figure that his son Jamie (Jake Lloyd) just had to have for Christmas. To compensate for the negligence of his father and husband, Howard makes it his mission to find the wanted figure and provide fun and tricks.

In addition to Schwarzenegger’s surprisingly adept comedic performance, Jingle All the Way also featured the late, great Phil Hartman as Howard’s brilliantly witty neighbor Ted Maltin. All in all, this 90s Christmas classic is yet another reason not to take Rotten Tomatoes so seriously. Now, Prime Video subscribers are proving that fact by sending “Jingle All the Way” into the holiday season’s most-watched charts and reminding us all that it’s staying one of the best Christmas movies of all time.

At the same time as Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Rich star Alan Ritchson to star in upcoming Christmas comedy“Jingle All the Way” shot up Prime Video’s most-watched charts to remind us all that the Austrian star is more than capable of handling this kind of family Christmas flick.

According to FlixPatrolsite that tracks and aggregates viewership data across streaming services, “Jingle All the Way” charted at number seven on December 14, 2024, which is actually a little later than I might have expected. Of course, at a time when streaming provides a steady cavalcade of mediocre holiday movies, it’s understandable that audiences’ attention might be a little more divided than it used to be.

However, Schwarzenegger’s classic Christmas outing has not only charted, but has climbed in the ratings since its debut. On December 15, it reached sixth place, and on December 16 it jumped to third place. Since then, the film has hovered around that spot, dropping to number four on December 18 before rising like Turbo Man himself — or, indeed, the Turbo Man of the Iron Age world, Jesus Christ — once again on December 19 to retake number three.

Christmas is a pretty competitive time when it comes to movies. Not only is your classic Christmas fare vying for attention – from the movie is claimed by IMDb to be the best Christmas movie everIt’s a Wonderful Life, to modern classics like Elf – now you have stuff like Red, Dwayne Johnson’s Holiday Outing That Was Kind of a Box Office Failure (But Not Really). This film has remained at the top of the Prime Video charts ever since it hit screens after a smashing theatrical run, and nothing seems to be able to dethrone it at the moment.

Queen Latifah tried her hand in her forgotten Christmas rom-com, The Last Holiday and John Candy currently has a crack at it with the excellent Uncle Buck hitting the Prime Video charts. At the moment, however, Arnie is the only one who can participate in the attempt to take down Red. “Jingle All the Way” may be holding a weak position at number three, but it has been steadily climbing the charts since December 14, 2024 and may be able to take that number one spot by the end of the week.

Although “Jingle All the Way” remains a classic Christmas movie that doesn’t need a sequelwe ended up getting a direct-to-video sequel starring Larry the Cable Guy in 2014. This forgotten sequel is still nowhere to be seen, but if there’s a way to set up some kind of mass screening to make it so that Larry was the one to finally dethrone The Rock, I think we owe it to ourselves.