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This story was originally published on December 6, 2018. Much like Santa with his Naughty and Nice list, every holiday season we revisit the ranking to reconsider which films make the cut. The holiday season is upon us, which means it’s time to put away our differences in the interest of peace on earth, goodwill toward others, etc., etc., and kick back with a great Christmas movie , a filmmaking tradition that dates back to the 1898 film Santa Claus . In that one, Santa slides down a chimney, stuffs some stockings, and promptly disappears into the ether; the whole film runs just over one minute long. No one would argue that that early effort was anything but a Christmas movie, but these days, the question comes up frequently: What exactly is a Christmas movie? Is merely being set at Christmas enough? Or is there some elusive other element that makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie? It’s the old, now tired, “Does Die Hard count?” debate. Well, does it? Opting for a big-tent definition of what constitutes a Christmas movie, this list of the greatest Christmas movies ever made argues, yes, it does, very much so. And not just because it takes place at Christmas. The story of a man trying to repair his life, earn redemption, and keep his family together, Die Hard engages with some key Christmas-movie themes. More than twinkling lights and gift-making elves, we looked to these elements when putting the list together. Also, the movies on this list have to be good. There’s a cynical reason to make a Christmas movie: The demand is high, even for the bad ones, every holiday season, when cable plays them ad nauseam to satisfy Christmas-crazed subscribers. So, sorry, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation — just because you’re unavoidable doesn’t earn you a spot on the list. Another qualifier: We stayed away from the world of made-for-TV movies, though some direct-to-streaming titles did make the cut. That means Hallmark Channel Christmas movies about young people who don’t like each other but then end up liking each other a lot weren’t considered. The list is mostly feature films but with a few shorts thrown in as well. We also opted to include a wide variety of Christmas movies, ranging from established classics to cult horror movies . Not every title will be for everyone, but there should be something for everyone here, whether you want Jimmy Stewart welcoming the season or Santa’s demonic counterpart threatening a dysfunctional family. In the spirit of the season, we erred on the side of generosity. 50. The streaming era has produced many forgettable movies that disappear from memory almost as quickly as they appear under the “Top Picks” header. But some have stuck around, like this goofy, endearing Netflix movie starring Kurt Russell as a gruff but good-hearted ( and hunky ) Santa who spends one busy Christmas Eve helping out a family of troubled kids escape a series of mishaps. Think Adventures in Babysitting , but with St. Nicholas and a musical cameo from Steven van Zandt and his band. A sequel followed in 2020 that, while not quite as good, does expand on Goldie Hawn’s last-minute appearance as Mrs. Claus at the end of the original. 49. A true Christmas oddity, this is the only holiday movie featuring Jimmy Durante as a down-on-his-luck vaudevillian forced to part ways with his trained squirrel as Christmas approaches. That’s the heartbreaking premise of The Great Rupert , but it’s all a set-up to a happy ending in which Durante is reunited with his four-legged friend, the poor get rich, and the rich learn a lesson (a story element that pops up a lot in the flood of Christmas movies released in the years immediately following World War II). The plot lags at times, but Durante’s always fun, and so is Rupert, the delightful creation of producer George Pal, the stop-motion wizard behind Puppetoons . 48. There’s no shortage of Christmas horror movies, some of them quite good (as other entries on this list suggest). But none are quite like Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale , an unwaveringly deadpan Christmas thriller from Finnish director Jalmari Helander ( Sisu ). Onni Tommila plays Pietari, a boy living in a remote corner of Lapland, who comes to fear that a nearby mining operation has unearthed Santa Claus. But not, in his words, the “Coca-Cola Santa,” the real, demonic Santa dedicated to punishing the naughty. As Christmas approaches, and strange occurrences like the mass slaughter of reindeer start to transpire, Pietari and those around him discover the boy is only half-right and the real trouble is even deeper and stranger. Helander and his cast commit to the absurd premise wholeheartedly, allowing Rare Exports to work as a fun yuletide black comedy and a pretty solid supernatural action film at the same time. Fair warning: You’ll never think of Santa’s elves in the same way ever again after watching it. 47. Between this movie and another one a little higher on the list, Billy Bob Thornton has carved himself a nice space in the seamy-underbelly-of-Christmas subgenre. Holiday cheer provides an ironic backdrop for this overlooked-but-quite-good Harold Ramis thriller, starring Thornton and John Cusack as a pair of seedy characters looking to get the hell out of Wichita after ripping off their boss. Unfortunately, they haven’t factored in the possibility that bad weather (to say nothing of double crosses and other unforeseen bits of adversity) will get in their way. Thornton and Cusack make for a great pair, but it’s Oliver Platt who steals his every scene as a drunken lawyer in a film that provides the perfect antidote to the season’s excessive amounts of good cheer and faith in one’s fellow man. 46. Tim Burton isn’t exactly underrepresented on this list, but his second Batman movie is too filled with twinkles and tinsel not to include, even if its mood is ultimately more frightful than festive. The sequel pits Batman (Michael Keaton) against the dreadful Penguin (Danny DeVito) and the alluring Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) against the backdrop of a Gotham City all decked out for the holidays. (One key scene takes place at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony that goes awry.) Whether it truly celebrates the season or not is open for debate, but watching the film’s superheroics play out in a snowy, light-strewn, postcard-perfect city makes it feel of a piece with Burton’s other Christmas films. 45. There’s been no shortage of scary Santas in movies — see above and below for examples — but few as terrifying as Christopher Plummer in this sometimes brutal thriller. Plummer plays Arthur Reikle, a psychopathic criminal who poses as a mall Santa while scheming to rob a Toronto bank. When a clever clerk (Elliott Gould) gets wise and schemes to rob the robber, a battle of wits ensues. The action plays out across several months, but it’s the early scenes that will make you look askance at any stranger in a Santa costume, no matter how jolly-seeming. 44. Or, if The Ice Harvest isn’t a strong enough antidote, check out this truly twisted slasher about a toy-factory employee who goes on a Yuletide killing spree. Christmas Evil has a premise similar to the much better known Silent Night, Deadly Night , which sparked protests in the streets when it was released four years later. But Silent Night, Deadly Night is just a standard slasher movie in Christmas drag. Christmas Evil plays like a demented piece of outsider art that takes the idea of a killer Santa to some pretty extreme places — including an ending that has to be seen to be believed. John Waters is a fan, which pretty much tells you all you need to know. 43. Before The Nightmare Before Christmas , before Rankin-Bass specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer , before even The Great Rupert there was The Insects’ Christmas , from Russian animator Ladislas Starevich. Starevich made a series of films using dead insects as his stars. His Christmas movie expands the cast to include Father Christmas and an animated doll. But insects remain, as the title suggests, front and center in an inventive, enchanting, if a little unsettling, look at how a bunch of bugs (and one frog) celebrate Christmas that climaxes with Santa, a grasshopper, and assorted other bugs skating on a frozen lake. счастливого Рождества to all! 42. What’s Stanley Kubrick’s final film about, really? Is it about one man’s harrowing descent into the erotic underbelly of New York as he wanders around one night? It is. But isn’t it also about a family nearly falling apart then getting back together in time for Christmas? Its final scene, set in a toy-and-Christmas-light-filled FAO Schwarz, suggests that’s the case. The film’s final lines are not directly related to the holidays or, technically speaking, family-friendly. But they, in their own way, encapsulate the season’s spirit of togetherness. 41. As Christmas approaches, all is not well for Henry Brougham (David Niven), a Protestant bishop trying to raise funds for the glorious new cathedral of his dreams — a project that’s led him to neglect his wife, Julia (Loretta Young), and daughter and cause him to lose sight of his roots as a minister to the needy. Enter Dudley (Cary Grant), an angel determined to set Henry on the right path. The only trouble: He finds himself increasingly wanting to spend time with Julia instead. The film’s a bit pokily directed at times, but Young and Grant’s chemistry smooths over some rough patches — particularly when Grant gets a wistful look in his eyes suggesting that he might call heaven his home but he knows he could find even greater happiness on earth with Young’s character by his side. ( The Preacher’s Wife , the 1996 remake starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, is also worth a look.) 40. Everyone knows that Christmas is about three things: spiritual reflection, spending time with family, and debutante balls. Or at least that’s what the season means for the self-described Urbane Haute Bourgeoisie of Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan , upper-class (and upper-class-adjacent) Manhattanites who spend their evenings attending deb events and their after-hours discussing life, politics, literature, and whatever else comes to mind. Edward Clements stars as Tom, a not-that-privileged college student who falls in with a more upper-crust crowd where he’s befriended by the acidic Nick (Chris Eigeman) and Audrey (Carolyn Farina), with whom he becomes infatuated. Audrey’s fondness for Jane Austen provides the strongest clue as to what Stillman’s up to with this fond but unsparing comedy of manners set among a group of not-quite-adults just before they have to decide what they do with the rest of their lives. It’s a spiritual reflection of a different sort, the kind loaded with endearing characters, witty lines, and unexpectedly touching moments. 39. What is Scrooged trying to say, anyway? You can watch the film over and over — easy to do if you have a cable subscription in December, when it plays all the time — and never quite figure it out. Is it a pitch-black comedy about the commercialization of Christmas? Is it a cynical send-up of our once-a-year celebration of kindness and selflessness? Is it a sincere depiction of a man being transformed by the holidays? It’s a tough film to pin down, probably because the darkly comic sensibilities of star Bill Murray and writers Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue often seem at odds with that of blockbuster director Richard Donner. But what makes this Reagan-era update on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol — in which Murray plays a cold-hearted TV network president visited by Christmas spirits — flawed also makes it fascinating, and Carol Kane is especially fun as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Worth noting: Dickens’s classic looms large over the Christmas-movie genre, making this just one of many A Christmas Carol adaptations to make the list. Others include ... 38. For a more tuneful version of the Dickens tale, there’s this 1970 musical starring Albert Finney as the eponymous miser. Finney holds nothing back as Scrooge, truly living up to the moniker “the Meanest Man in the Whole Wide World” given to him in “Father Christmas,” one of many earworm-y songs written by Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory songwriter Leslie Bricusse. Highlights include Alec Guinness as a spooky Jacob Marley and a truly scary Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It’s a big, occasionally tacky, but quite fun take on the familiar story. 35. All three of these movies raise a question: How much Christmas does a movie need to be a Christmas movie ? All are great films that set key scenes at Christmastime, but is it fair to call them Christmas movies? In the generous spirit of the season, let’s include them (but let’s also rank them a little lower than some others because so much of their narratives don’t take place during the holidays). All also have moments so Christmassy it would be a shame not to include them. Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 Little Women adaptation gets the nod for the moving way it stages the moment when Beth (Claire Danes) receives a piano for Christmas (and Danes’s heartrending expression of overwhelming joy). Greta Gerwig’s 2019 version has to be included for the moment when Bob Odenkirk’s Mr. March returns home for Christmas and embraces his family while calling them “my little women.” Vincente Minnelli’s classic 1944 musical spans a year in the life of St. Louis’s Smith family, but it’s a year in which a Christmas ball plays a pivotal role and features Judy Garland debuting “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” now a Christmas standard (albeit one no one has performed more heartbreakingly than Garland). 34. With her follow-up to Something’s Gotta Give , Nancy Myers seemingly set out to ask the question, If I cast four actors who really have no business appearing in a soft-edged romantic comedy in my next movie, could I make it work anyway? The answer: kind of? Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play, respectively, a tightly wound editor of movie trailers and a British newspaper reporter who decide to swap houses shortly before Christmas. This leads Winslet’s character, now in L.A., to befriend an aging screenwriter played by Eli Wallach and (eventually) fall for a kindhearted composer played by Jack Black. Meanwhile, Diaz’s character, installed in Surrey, unwittingly hooks up with the brother of Winslet’s character, played by Jude Law. It’s a somewhat shapeless movie that goes on too long, but it also has an undeniable, nap-friendly, tryptophan-like charm as four beautiful people overcome the ridiculously small hurdles keeping them from getting together in two photogenic environments. (Also, Wallach’s a lot of fun.) 33. Bob Hope didn’t so much play characters as variations on the Bob Hope persona, a wisecracking coward with a tendency to get in way over his head then make matters worse for himself. Hope’s not the most obvious fit for a Damon Runyon adaptation, much less a Christmas-themed Runyon adaptation with a deep sentimental streak, but their sensibilities end up meshing pretty well anyway in this 1951 comedy. Hope plays the eponymous character, a con artist who has to flee Florida for New York in order to pay off a debt to a gangster. The ensuing scam involves criminals dressed as Santa and a fake retirement home for “Old Dolls.” The inspired slapstick bits reportedly come from the brilliant animator-turned-director Frank Tashlin, but it’s Hope and co-star Marilyn Maxwell’s performance of the then-new “Silver Bells” that’s ensured the film its spot in the Christmas-movie canon. 32. Nostalgia and holidays both have a way of warping emotions. Combined, they’re hard to resist, especially when it comes to movies that won us over when we were younger. That’s why it’s impossible not to include Home Alone — the John Hughes–scripted, Chris Columbus–directed hit in which Macaulay Culkin finds himself unexpectedly left behind when his family mistakenly flies to Paris without him. But it would be unfair to rank it any higher. Have you watched it? Lately? As a grown-up? Like, watched it all the way through from the shrill opening filled with obnoxious kids to the leadenly staged slapstick climax? It’s a much rougher ride than you might remember. Still, Culkin’s charming, and the sentimental ending works every time. Just ask George Costanza . 31. Few movies have been embraced and rejected, rejected and embraced with the ferocity of Richard Curtis’s 2003 holiday smorgasbord of new love, old love, dying love, Prime Minister love, and porn-movie love. It’s unabashedly corny and sometimes annoyingly smug and simplistic in its take on love, but there’s just so much going on in the movie that it’s hard to reject it wholesale. Don’t like the silly story line in which some luckless Brits fly to America to test the theory that their accents will make them a hit with women? Just stay tuned for a wrenching tale of infidelity starring Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson. Plus, it features the quintessential Bill Nighy performance as a washed-up rock star made miserable by his success, a true present any time of year. 30. Janet Leigh plays Connie, a war widow who unexpectedly becomes the center of a love triangle when her longtime suitor Carl (Wendell Corey) meets an unexpected rival in the form of Steve (Robert Mitchum), a veteran trying to figure out his place in the postwar world. Steve finds himself infatuated with Connie after they meet-cute in a department store — he’s a clerk, she’s a Christmastime undercover shopper — then starts a hard sell, asking him to dump Carl and take a chance on him. Mitchum’s tough-guy demeanor serves him well here, giving an odd energy to the love story. His character is sometimes written as too pushy, but the scene in which he declares his intentions over Christmas dinner, a moment where there’s no room for lies, is downright electric — and the final scene is a stunner. 29. Shane Black often sets his films against a Christmas backdrop, but where Lethal Weapon , Iron Man 3 , and others feel like films that happen to take place at Christmas, Black’s directorial debut feels like it could only take place at Christmas thanks to its themes of redemption, forgiveness, and rebirth. Here it’s New York thief Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) in need of a new start, which he gets when he’s mistakenly asked to audition for a role in a Hollywood movie. Once there, he falls into a mystery tied to his own past when he reconnects with a childhood friend (Michelle Monaghan) and reluctantly partners with a private eye (Val Kilmer). The twists, rapid-fire banter, and love of seedy crime fiction are familiar Black trademarks, but the concern for Harry’s happiness and connections with others — brought to life by the performance that cemented Downey’s comeback — make this Black’s most heartfelt script. 28. Sometimes the right actor in the right role is pretty much all you need. This pleasant, goofy film stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human who’s grown up at the North Pole living under the mistaken impression that he’s an elf, despite developing into a lumbering adult with little skill for elfish endeavors such as toy-making. Eventually, he has to find his way in the human world when he travels to New York in search of his birth father (James Caan). As a cynical department-store employee, Zooey Deschanel provides a fun contrast to Ferrell’s wild-eyed enthusiasm. The film’s more winning the less it relies on wild antics, but Ferrell and others make sure it stays heartfelt throughout. 27. Aardman Animations, the studio behind the Wallace and Gromit shorts and Chicken Run , brings its own particular whimsical sensibility to a holiday tale with this playful look inside the inner workings of the North Pole, where the latest in a long line of Santas (Jim Broadbent) seems reluctant to give up his post to one of his sons. Steven Claus (Hugh Laurie), who’s been running the operation for his dad with military precision, seems the obvious successor, but it’s the bumbling Arthur (James McAvoy) who best embodies the Christmas spirit, as evidenced by his mad rush to make sure the one kid who mistakenly got the wrong present doesn’t wake up disappointed on Christmas morning. The film mixes clever ideas — dig that high-tech North Pole! — with real warmth, making it feel like nothing less than the future of Christmas itself rests on Arthur’s shoulders. 26. The first big-screen Muppet project after the 1990 death of Jim Henson, A Muppet Christmas Carol features some terrific Paul Williams songs, and smartly slots the always charming Muppets in the familiar Dickens roles. (Kermit and Piggy play the Cratchits, naturally, yet it’s details like the Swedish Chef as a party cook that make it a particular delight for longtime fans.) In the end, though, what makes the movies is Michael Caine’s performance as Ebenezer Scrooge. Caine plays it straight, as if he doesn’t even realize he’s surrounded by puppets, ensuring that the movie works as a moving Dickens adaptation first, and a Muppet movie second. 25. A true cult classic, this low-budget noir directed by Allen Baron unfolds against the backdrop of a New York decked out for the holidays. Yet it’s anything but a merry Christmas for Frank Bono (also Baron), a Cleveland hit man who’s in town to do a job. Mixing gritty location shooting with lyrical narration, it mixes pulpy themes with a feeling of existential loneliness. The movie would work if it weren’t set at Christmas, but the holiday cheer ratchets up the sense of alienation and despair. Not everyone is destined to have happy holidays. Some might not even make it out alive. 24. Arthur Christmas too heartwarming for you? Then try Bob Clark’s classic horror film, in which a mysterious killer starts picking off members of a sorority house one by one during the lead-up to Christmas. Shot on and near the University of Toronto campus, it’s secretly one of the most influential horror films of all time, inspiring Halloween and all the slasher films that followed. Beyond its odd cast (Margot Kidder! SCTV ’s Andrea Martin! Romeo and Juliet star Olivia Hussey! 2001: A Space Odyssey ’s Keir Dullea!), it’s notable for using Christmas trappings to unnerving effect, including a truly memorable final scene. (Clark, who’d later go on to direct Porky’s , would return to Christmas with a much different movie less than a decade later.) 23. Is this a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie? Why choose one when it’s obviously both? The Nightmare Before Christmas has become such a Halloween marketing bonanza — with images of protagonists Jack Skellington and Sally becoming unavoidable every October — that it’s easy to forget it’s at heart the story of a kindhearted ghoulish spirit learning the true meaning of Christmas. (That its most famous song repeats the words “This is Halloween!” over and over again probably doesn’t help.) Directed by stop-motion wizard Henry Selick from a story and designs by Tim Burton, it plays like a sweet-creepy take on a Rankin-Bass Christmas special, building an elaborate mythology out of the holidays and populating it with endearing characters with lessons to learn and adversity to overcome. 22. Much like Nightmare Before Christmas , Joe Dante’s enduring horror favorite Gremlins plays like someone wanted to see how badly a bunch of little monsters could screw up the setting of another Christmas classic. The answer: pretty badly! Set in an idyllic American town straight out of It’s a Wonderful Life — its name, Kingston Falls, even hearkens back to that movie’s Bedford Falls — Gremlins features a cuddly little creature whose evil offspring run amok all over a sweet burg as it gets ready to celebrate the Christmas season. As usual, Dante mixes mockery with celebration, and the film evolves from a horror movie into a freewheeling send-up of both the holidays and the Hollywood movies that celebrate them. 21. Neither Disney animation nor its biggest star, Mickey Mouse, were riding high in the early ’80s. Disney had suffered a string of disappointments and setbacks, and though he remained an inescapable icon, Mickey hadn’t been seen in movie theaters since the ’50s. But this adaptation of the Dickens story suggested there might be life in both yet. Running just 26 minutes — and originally serving as the opener for a rerelease of The Rescuers — Mickey’s Christmas Carol offers a brisk, moving take on the familiar story. Scrooge McDuck (who else?) assumes the Scrooge role, but it’s Mickey and Minnie’s turns as the Cratchits that give the lovingly animated film its heart. After years of cutting corners and coasting on past triumphs, it provided an early sign that Disney was trying again — almost as if the studio has been visited by spirits reminding it what really mattered or something. 20. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck famously co-starred in Billy Wilder’s 1944 noir Double Indemnity , but that’s just one of four films to pair them together. They first teamed up for this 1940 Christmas romance in which Fred MacMurray plays John Sargent, a hard-charging DA who, through a misunderstanding, comes to spend the days before Christmas with Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck), a small-time jewel thief he’s prosecuting. They start to fall in love during a road trip to Indiana, a sojourn that almost allows them to forget that John still has to try to send Lee to jail when they get back. Directed by Mitchell Leisen from a Preston Sturges script, Remember the Night begins as a broad, brisk comedy but shifts moods as John learns about Lee’s difficult past. In a classic holiday-spirit turn, he comes to realize the advantages his loving family have bestowed upon him once he sees how appreciative Lee is after sharing the first warm Christmas morning of her life with his family. 19. A movie about holiday togetherness that focuses on three characters that would rather be anywhere else (at least at first), Alexander Payne’s 1970-set comedy stars Paul Giamatti as Paul, a boarding-school teacher unexpectedly saddled with caring for a handful of boys with nowhere else to go at Christmastime. When that bunch gets reduced to just one bright, sad, rebellious kid named Angus (Dominic Sessa), Paul finds himself forced to open up for the first time in years, both to Angus and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the head of the school’s cafeteria services who’s remained behind to provide meals. Mary’s still mourning the loss of her son in Vietnam, and Angus has family problems that remain veiled until late in the film. They seemingly have nothing in common, but Payne’s film evolves from a comedy of awkward interactions to a bittersweet celebration of togetherness that unfolds on the edge of despair. 18. French cinematic pioneer Georges Méliès’s contribution to the Christmas-film canon offers little in the way of narrative, just an abundance of turn-of-the-century Christmas imagery as a pair of sleeping children imagine a winter wonderland filled with frolicking musicians, holiday revelers, and, of course, Père Noël himself. It’s a lovely, whimsical short film that captures the inventive director in a festive mood, and immortalizes on film ways of celebrating Christmas that otherwise might have faded from memory. 17. A song of yearning for holiday togetherness the singer suspects he’ll never find again, Bing Crosby’s recording of the Irving Berlin song “White Christmas” became a runaway hit in 1942 as America adjusted to the loss and separation of World War II. Its success was spurred on by the August release of Holiday Inn , a musical conceived by Berlin that starred Crosby and Fred Astaire as collaborators who break up and reunite over the course of a year, all against the backdrop of a country inn only open on holidays. (All the better to showcase Berlin’s knack for crafting holiday-themed hits.) With Danny Kaye subbing in for Astaire, Berlin and Crosby teamed up 12 years later for White Christmas , another holiday musical set at an idyllic getaway. Both films have become Christmas staples, and both have much to recommend them. Featuring top-drawer Berlin songs and one memorable scene after another — Astaire tap dances while smoking and setting off fireworks in one — and elegant direction by Mark Sandrich, Holiday Inn is the better film by a good measure, but watching it means grappling with an ugly blackface number mid-film. (To make matters worse, skipping the scene altogether would result in missing an important plot point.) White Christmas , on the other hand, features fewer songs and a sleepy, low-stakes plot as Crosby and Kaye romance (sort of) a sister act played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. Still, its aggressive, Technicolor pleasantness has its own charms. 15. Tim Burton clearly has a fondness for Christmas that extends beyond A Nightmare Before Christmas . Batman Returns , for one, uses the holiday to memorable effect. But Burton’s Edward Scissorhands goes even further, treating a sensitive, lab-created man with scissors for hands (Johnny Depp) as a Christ-like, too-pure-for-this-world figure who descends on an American suburb where he’s celebrated, then persecuted. The first collaboration between Burton and Depp, a team-up that would become less welcome as the years piled up, is a lovely celebration of outsiders that captures the Burton sensibility in its purest form, elevating his sympathy for monsters and a disdain for the “normal” world into a moral drama filled with arresting images. 14. Not unlike Scissorhands , John Ford’s 3 Godfathers similarly uses echoes of the story of Christ to tremendous effect. A rare Christmas Western, the film stars John Wayne as one of a trio of bank robbers who agree to care for a newborn child while fleeing the law in Death Valley. Ford’s biblical echoes aren’t subtle, nor are they intended to be, but Wayne keeps the film, and its themes of redemption and rebirth, grounded with one of his most sensitive performances. 13. A great Christmas movie that not enough people talk about, It Happened on Fifth Avenue opens with the homeless sage Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor More) moving, as he does every Christmas season, into the luxurious Manhattan home of vacationing tycoon Michael J. O’Connor (Charles Ruggles). From there the film keeps piling on the complications as it breaks down the divide between the haves and the have-nots. McKeever is soon joined by a displaced World War II vet (Don DeFore) and O’Connor’s daughter Mary (Ann Harding), who doesn’t let on that she’s loaded and knows the house even better than those squatting there. The house grows more crowded, new loves get kindled, old loves get renewed, and O’Connor is forced to do a Scrooge-like about-face when he gets reacquainted with those less fortunate than him. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, who took on the project after Frank Capra decided to make It’s a Wonderful Life instead, It Happened on Fifth Avenue earns its warmth honestly, tethering a tale of fresh starts and changed hearts to the real difficulties faced by those reaching for the American dream in a postwar era that was supposed to bring prosperity for all. 12. In a film as sexy as it is funny, Barbara Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a magazine columnist who risks being exposed as a phony if she can’t create the perfect Christmas at the Connecticut home she’s writing about as part of a PR stunt to reward recuperating GI Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), who’s been dreaming of tasting her recipes while serving in World War II. The only problem: There is no Connecticut home, and she can’t cook. The farcical complications pile up from there, and Stanwyck deftly balances Elizabeth’s mounting sense of panic with wry humor as she reckons with her unexpected desire for Jones — a desire that has popped up just after she’s decided to give up on love in return for a marriage of convenience. Director Peter Godfrey keeps the action fast and light while trusting Stanwyck to excellently bring her character’s dilemma to life, even if it involves changing a diaper as if she’s never seen a baby before in her life. 11. Produced as the planet descended into another World War, this 1939 short , like many animated films, depicts a world populated by wide-eyed cartoon animals. The difference: They’ve inherited the Earth from humanity, whose habit of making war has led to its destruction. Directed for MGM by the influential animation pioneer Hugh Harman — who, with his partner Rudy Ising, had already logged stints working for Walt Disney and Warner Bros. — it’s a masterfully downbeat vision of the future; the cute protagonists, with their enthusiasm for keeping Christmas traditions alive, do little to offset the short film’s depictions of the horrors of war and the ways we fail to live up to our noblest principles. When Fred Quimby, William Hanna, and Joseph Barbera remade it 16 years later as the also-great Good Will to Men , they had to change little beyond the addition of nuclear war and other up-to-date threats. 10. The end of the year can be a confusing time of reflection for those who feel they don’t have anything to celebrate. That feeling is captured beautifully in Scottish director Bill Forsyth’s tale of a Glasgow DJ (Bill Paterson), who finds himself unexpectedly alone when he’s dumped by his girlfriend shortly before Christmas. Adrift, he finds himself drawn into a turf war between two rival ice-cream vendors, a conflict that might offer him a chance to start over, or might drive him to the brink of madness. Paterson beautifully depicts a man who’s quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, experiencing a nervous breakdown as the world around him grows stranger and more absurd. That it all somehow builds toward a hilarious moment of reconciliation involving an unexpected new ice-cream product is just one of many little miracles in a Christmas movie that takes a roundabout way to celebrating the season’s possibilities of renewal and rebirth, but still gets there all the same. 9. It takes time for a film to emerge as a Christmas classic, and while this one may not end up being shown in constant rotation alongside A Christmas Story and Home Alone , let’s stake an early claim for Sean Baker’s Tangerine , a film that follows the Christmas spirit into some unexpected corners . Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor co-star as, respectively, Sin-Dee and Alexandra, a pair of transgender sex workers living on the fringes of Los Angeles. Released from jail on Christmas Eve, Sin-Dee is driven to frustration when she learns that her pimp/lover Chester (James Ransone) is cheating on her as Alexandra prepares for a musical performance. Chaos mounts as day turns into night in the hours before Christmas. Baker’s film, co-written by Chris Bergoch, alternates laughs and shocks, but it keeps circling back to how this particular Christmas has become a crossroads for its central characters, and how much they need each other if they’re going to make it through another year. It all ends with an image that, in its own way, is as warm and generous as Charlie Brown’s friends reviving a seemingly hopeless tree. You might have noticed that this list — some notable exceptions aside — is dominated by stories of prosperous white families. Among its other virtues, Tangerine serves as a corrective to that tradition, serving as a reminder that Christmas isn’t limited to the land of picket fences and neatly trimmed trees. It’s a film as vital, alive, and in touch with the holiday as more traditional entries — an invitation to other filmmakers to redefine what a Christmas movie can be, and as much a story about the importance of human kindness as the one that tops this list. 8. Like Comfort and Joy , Todd Haynes’s Carol depicts the holidays as a time of possibility and peril as an intense, forbidden romance plays out against the backdrop of the 1952 Christmas season. The film stars Cate Blanchett as the eponymous unhappy housewife, a woman who unexpectedly falls for Therese (Rooney Mara), a store clerk. But their relationship seems doomed before it really begins once it threatens Carol’s ability to see her child, leaving her with an impossible choice. Inspired by Brief Encounter and adapted from a 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith, otherwise best known for pitiless crime fiction like The Talented Mr. Ripley , Carol uses its holiday setting as more than a backdrop: Haynes bathes the films in Christmas lights, sure, but he also captures the spirit of a season through Carol and Therese’s relationship. The passing of one year gives way to a potential new beginning of the next — for those who can make it to the other side. 7. Odd as it may sound, many of the same qualities in Carol also make Die Hard a great Christmas movie, no matter what star Bruce Willis says . Yes, the John McTiernan–directed movie is one of the best action movies ever made; yes, it’s endlessly quotable; and, yes, it transformed Willis from that guy on Moonlighting who occasionally put out music under a different persona into a full-fledged movie star. But it’s also a story of loss and renewal in which Willis’s New York cop John McClane has to navigate the strange world of L.A. and take down a bunch of Eurotrash pseudo-terrorists in order to repair his marriage. And that’s no small part of the movie. Reconciling with his wife in time for the holidays is McClane’s mission. The rest is just a sidetrack, though neither goal will be easy. Still, he guns down the bad guys and emerges from the confrontation bloody and with a sense of forgiveness. Merry Christmas to all! 6. A proudly mean-spirited black comedy seemingly at war with the Christmas spirit, Bad Santa somehow loops all the way back around to being a heartwarming Christmas movie about one man’s redemption. It’s a weird trick, pulled off in large part thanks to star Billy Bob Thornton’s performance as a hard-drinking con artist who uses his work as a mall Santa as a setup for grand larceny. Actually, “hard-drinking” doesn’t begin to describe Thornton’s Willie Soke, who spends much of the film in a near-stuporous state yet still manages to form an unlikely makeshift family with a misfit kid (Brett Kelly) and a bartender (Lauren Graham) with a thing for Santas. With able support from Bernie Mac and John Ritter, director Terry Zwigoff keeps the humor dark without losing sight of his characters’ humanity — however deep they might sink into a drunken haze. 5. Making his second appearance on this list with a much different Christmas movie, director Bob Clark’s venerable 1983 film adapts storyteller and radio personality Jean Shepherd’s tales of growing up in Hammond, Indiana, while cutting nostalgia and sentiment with just the right amounts of broad, occasionally dark, comedy. (And, it has to be noted, some pretty unfortunate racial stereotypes toward the end.) The episodic film follows Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) in the days before Christmas, when he wants nothing more than a Red Ryder air rifle — and seems destined not to get one. Narrated by Shepherd himself, it mixes big comic moments, like a kid getting his tongue stuck to a stop sign, with affection for family life and days gone by. Clark renders the memories of growing up in a particular time and place so well that Shepherd’s Hammond — its name changed to “Hohman” — becomes an idealized stand-in for any time and every place. 4. There are many great romantic movies set at Christmas, but somehow The Shop Around the Corner still stands above them all. Maybe it’s the irresistible premise: A pair of feuding co-workers don’t realize they’re falling in love with one another via anonymous letters. (If that sounds familiar, it’s because Nora Ephron drew on the same source material — the Miklós László play Parfumerie — for You’ve Got Mail .) Maybe it’s a cast headed by Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan and filled out with colorful character actors. Maybe it’s because few directors have balanced lightness and romance like Ernst Lubitsch. Whatever the case, it’s both a peerless romantic comedy and one of the great Christmas movies, weaving themes of forgiveness and second chances into a love story that reflects the season in which it takes place. 3. What makes an adaptation of A Christmas Carol great? Above all, it’s the actor playing Ebenezer Scrooge. There have been many memorable movie Scrooges (take a look at the multiple entries above), but few as memorable as Alastair Sim. He’s not just terrifyingly convincing as a pitiless miser in the film’s early scenes but also heartbreakingly affecting as a changed man in its closing moments. Not that Sim doesn’t get help from director Brian Desmond Hurst, who whisks the action along while surrounding his lead with lushly realized Victorian trappings and an able supporting cast. But the film rests on Sim’s shoulders, and it’s not hard to see why he’s yet to be supplanted as the definitive Scrooge. 2. Here’s a question: What was going on that led to so many great Christmas movies being released in 1947? That year saw the release of The Bishop’s Wife , It Happened on Fifth Avenue (see above), and offered most viewers their first chance to see the greatest Christmas movie of all time (see below). It also produced this lovely story of a girl (Natalie Wood) whose mother (Maureen O’Hara) unwittingly hires someone who may be the actual Kris Kringle as a department-store Santa at Macy’s. What follows is part fantasy, part romance (as O’Hara’s character starts to fall for a charming neighbor), part indictment of commercialism, part defense of letting children be children as long as they can, and part legal thriller (well, sort of). Mostly, the film, written and directed by George Seaton, is an irresistible bit of Christmas whimsy made unforgettable by Edmund Gwenn’s turn as the man who might be Santa. 1. What else? Really, what other film could top a list of the greatest Christmas movies of all time? Frank Capra’s enduring classic stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the unwitting savior of Bedford Falls, a man whose goodness and generosity has touched more people than he realizes. In fact, as one bleak Christmas looms, he doesn’t realize it at all and is ready to commit suicide — until an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) arrives to show him the error of his ways. Though it’s become synonymous with holiday cheer, Capra’s film works because of its willingness to go to some dark places, and because of Stewart’s ability to play a gregarious goof one moment and a man whose world comes crashing down the next. Curiously, the film didn’t go into wide release until after Christmas in January of 1947, which might have contributed to its underwhelming box-office performance. But it received a second life thanks to relentless airings on local television in the ’70s and ’80s, where its depiction of one man’s dark night of the soul (and a nightmarish vision of what unrestrained greed looks like without those interested in fairness and justice to stand in the way of the Mr. Potters of the world) connected with a new generation. It’s not hard to see why. It’s grounded in details of the times that inspired it — the Depression, World War II — but its vision of holiday kindness, and of the sort of country most of us would want to live in and the values of kindness and generosity most of us share, remains timeless.
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See some of the best photos from National Geographic's ‘Pictures of the Year'Cade Klubnik will lead the Clemson Tigers (8-2) into their game against the The Citadel Bulldogs (5-6) at Memorial Stadium (Clemson, SC) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Keep reading to find out the details on how to watch this game on The CW. Watch college football live without cable. Stream ACC, SEC, ESPN and more with Fubo. What is Fubo? Fubo is a streaming service that gives you access to your favorite live sports and shows on demand. Start your risk free trial today and start watching college football games now. Stop missing games and start streaming college football right now on Fubo. Stop missing games and start streaming college football right now on ESPN+. Get tickets for any college football game this season at Ticketmaster. Rep your favorite players with officially licensed gear. Head to Fanatics to find jerseys, shirts, hats, and much more.Last holiday for Biden White House celebrates 'a season of peace and light'Malware-poisoned versions of the widely used JavaScript library @solana/web3.js were distributed via the npm package registry, according to an advisory issued Wednesday by project maintainer Steven Luscher. An advisory , covering CVE-2024-54134 (CVSS-B: 8.3 High), explains that a hijacked @solana account with permission to publish the library was used to add malicious code. The library typically sees almost half a million weekly downloads. It’s used in decentralized apps, or dapps , tied to the Solana blockchain, which is not itself affected. The compromised npm account gave an attacker the opportunity "to publish unauthorized and malicious packages that were modified, allowing them to steal private key material and drain funds from dapps, like bots, that handle private keys directly," the advisory states, before explaining that non-custodial wallets should not be affected. Two affected versions (1.95.6 and 1.95.7) of the library have since been unpublished. Solana dapps that fetched the @solana/web3.js library as a direct or transitive dependency while those versions were available – a window from 3:20pm UTC to 8:25pm UTC on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 – may have downloaded the malicious code. Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Labs, which makes Solana tools, estimated that the financial loss to unspecified persons "is roughly 130K USD so far." "In general, wallets should not be affected since they don't expose private keys – the biggest effect would be on people running JavaScript bots on the backend (ie, not user facing) with private keys on those servers if they updated to this version within the timeframe (last few hours until the patch)," wrote Mumatz in a social media post . Solana research and development firm Anza has posted a root cause analysis of the incident that suggests the attack began with a spear phishing email on Tuesday, December 3, at 1520 UTC, to an @solana npm org member with publish access. The phishing gambit is said to have captured the victim's username, password, and two-factor authentication details. Anza's analysis indicates that the attack came to light after "a core contributor of @solana/web3.js was alerted of the exploit by an ecosystem team that had installed one of the malicious versions into their application and had deployed it." The affected individual is said to have noticed the unauthorized transfer of assets from unspecified digital wallets to another account. In a social media post , Christophe Tafani-Dereeper, a security researcher for Datadog, wrote: "The backdoor inserted in v1.95.7 adds an 'addToQueue' function which exfiltrates the private key through seemingly-legitimate Cloudflare headers." Socket.dev, a software security biz, advises developers to run its free command-line tool to check for the presence of compromised packages. ®
Putin apologizes for 'tragic incident' but stops short of saying Azerbaijani plane was shot down MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people. He stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible. The Kremlin said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike as the plane attempted to land on Wednesday. Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace.” The Kremlin also says Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are jointly investigating the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. Israel detains the director of one of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals during a raid DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza's Health Ministry says Israel’s army has detained the director of one of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals. The announcement on Saturday came after health officials said Israeli troops stormed the hospital and forced many staff and patients outside and told them to strip in winter weather. Israel’s military alleges the hospital director is a suspected Hamas operative and says it detained over 240 others. It acknowledges it ordered people outside and that special forces entered the hospital. It says it “eliminated” militants who fired at its forces. Kamal Adwan officials have denied that Hamas operates in the hospital. Abortions are up in the US. It's a complicated picture as women turn to pills, travel Even with abortion bans in place in most Republican-controlled states, the number of people obtaining them has grown slightly. That's part of a complicated picture of the impacts of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade two and a half years ago. Abortion pills are more common now. So is traveling to other states for care, often on journeys hundreds of miles long. Public support for the right to abortion has also increased since before the ruling. That's been reflected in most ballot measures to add the right to abortion to state constitutions being adopted. Drought, fires and deforestation battered Amazon rainforest in 2024 BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The Amazon rainforest staggered through another difficult year in 2024. A second year of record drought contributed to wildfires that worsened deforestation across the massive forest, which spans Brazil, Peru, Colombia and other Latin American nations and is a critical counterweight to climate change. There were some bright spots. Both Brazil and Colombia reported lower levels of deforestation compared to prior years. Experts say Amazon countries need to do more to strengthen cross-border collaboration and that the global community who reap the benefits of commodities from the rainforest also need to pitch in. Bloodied Ukrainian troops risk losing more hard-won land in Kursk to Russia KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied by daily combat losses and demoralized by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk. Some want to stay in the region at all costs. Others question the value of having gone in at all. Battles are so intense that commanders are unable to evacuate their dead. Lags in communication and poorly timed operations have cost lives and commanders say they have little way to counterattack. The overstretched Ukrainians have lost more than 40% of the territory they won in the lightning incursion that seized much of Kursk in August. Afghan forces target Pakistan in retaliation for deadly airstrikes Afghanistan's Defense Ministry says its forces hit several points inside Pakistan in retaliation for deadly airstrikes. Pakistan last Tuesday launched an operation to destroy a training facility and kill insurgents in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province. The strikes killed dozens of people. The ministry said Saturday that its forces hit points “serving as centers and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organized and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan.” Pakistan accuses the Taliban of not doing enough to combat cross-border militant activity, a charge the Taliban government denies. Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who instituted economic reforms, cremated in New Delhi NEW DELHI (AP) — Manmohan Singh, the former Indian prime minister widely regarded as the architect of the country’s economic reform program, has been cremated after a state funeral. The veteran leader, who was also credited for a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, died late Thursday at age 92. Singh’s body was taken Saturday to the headquarters of his Congress party in New Delhi, where party leaders and activists paid tributes to him and chanted “Manmohan Singh lives forever.” Later, his body was transported to a crematorium ground for his last rites as soldiers beat drums. A mild-mannered technocrat, Singh was prime minister for 10 years until 2014. Sweden embarks on a sober search for more cemetery space in case of war GOTHENBURG, Sweden (AP) — Burial associations in Sweden are looking to acquire enough land for something they hope they’ll never have to do. And that's to bury thousands of people in the event of war. The search follows new crisis preparedness guidelines from the country's civil defense agency and the military. The issue is seen in a new light after Russia's invasion of Ukraine led formerly neutral Sweden to join NATO. Sweden and Finland sent out updated civil preparedness guides in November with instructions on how to survive in war. The guides are similar to those in Denmark and Norway, though they don't mention Russia by name. Olivia Hussey, star of the 1968 film 'Romeo and Juliet,' dies at 73 LONDON (AP) — Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family said on social media. She was 73. Hussey died on Friday, “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones,” a statement posted to her Instagram account said. Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy. “Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting. Decades later, the pair brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures over nude scenes in the film they said they were coerced to perform. The case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023. Winning ticket for $1.22 billion lottery jackpot sold in California, Mega Millions says At least one Mega Millions player has plenty of dough to ring in the New Year after drawing the winning number. After three months without anyone winning the top prize in the lottery, a ticket worth an estimated $1.22 billion was sold in California for the drawing Friday night. The California Lottery said the winning ticket was sold at Circle K (Sunshine Food and Gas) on Rhonda Rd. in Cottonwood. The winning ticket matched the white balls 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and the gold Mega Ball 6. The identity of the winner or winners was not immediately known. The estimated jackpot was the fifth-highest ever for Mega Millions.They weren't expected to win their conference. They certainly weren't expected to qualify for the College Football Playoff. Nonetheless, the fourth-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils (11-2) have a chance to earn perhaps the biggest win in program history when they battle fifth-seeded Texas (12-2) in a CFP quarterfinal on New Year's Day at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. The winner will meet either top-seeded Oregon or No. 8 seed Ohio State in a semifinal game at the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10 in Arlington, Texas. Projected last in the preseason Big 12 poll, Arizona State secured an automatic bid to its first CFP with a 45-19 drubbing of Iowa State in the conference championship on Dec. 7. Despite the Sun Devils boasting 311 fewer all-time victories than the Longhorns, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham doesn't see the matchup as David versus Goliath. "No, I wouldn't say that," Dillingham said. "I would say this is a really good football team that was predicted to win a national championship versus the Big 12 champion. I'm excited to see our guys go out there and compete." Riding a six-game winning streak, Arizona State will have rested for 24 days by the time New Year's Day rolls around, admittedly an obstacle Dillingham's team will have to overcome. "Not playing a game for 3 1/2 weeks is definitely a challenge," Dillingham said. "Especially because we were playing our best football. ... We really dominated the end of the season, in my opinion." Averaging 34.5 points per game, the Sun Devils' offense is led by quarterback Sam Leavitt's 2,663 passing yards and 29 total touchdowns, alongside running back Cam Skattebo's 1,568 rushing yards and 19 scores. An upstart Arizona State squad enters Wednesday's game as nearly two-touchdown underdogs, much due to Texas' stingy defense, which allows the second-fewest points per game in college football (13.3). The Longhorns have slipped twice this season, to Georgia, first in a 30-15 home loss on Oct. 19, then in a 22-19 overtime defeat in the Southeastern Conference title game on Dec. 7. Appearing in its second straight CFP, Texas pulled away from visiting Clemson in the opening round last Saturday to win 38-24. Now preparing for the Longhorns' second all-time meeting with Arizona State (2007 Holiday Bowl), coach Steve Sarkisian doesn't take December football for granted. "To be a part of this game is a fantastic honor," Sarkisian said. "We're really proud of the fact that we've gotten to this point. We obviously have a ton of respect for Arizona State and the job coach Dillingham has done. They're a very good football team. We know how hard it is to win the Big 12." Last time out, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers threw for 202 yards, a touchdown and an interception, but the Longhorns shredded the Clemson defense with 292 rushing yards. Jaydon Blue ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns, paired with Quintrevion Wisner's 110 yards and two scores. "We needed to run the ball to beat Clemson, and we're going to need to run the football to keep advancing in these playoffs," Sarkisian said. "That's what playoff football is about. ... There's a lot that goes into the run game. It takes all 11 to run the ball." --Field Level MediaCompany Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.17 Per Share LAS VEGAS , Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE: BYD) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized an additional $500 million under the Company's share repurchase program. Considering the additional authorization, the Company had approximately $843 million remaining in repurchase authority as of September 30, 2024 . Additionally, the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.17 per share, payable January 15, 2025 , to shareholders of record as of December 16, 2024 . About Boyd Gaming Founded in 1975, Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE: BYD) is a leading geographically diversified operator of 28 gaming entertainment properties in 10 states, manager of a tribal casino in northern California , and owner and operator of Boyd Interactive, a B2B and B2C online casino gaming business. The Company is also a strategic partner and 5% equity owner of FanDuel Group, the nation's leading sports- betting operator. With one of the most experienced leadership teams in the casino industry, Boyd Gaming prides itself on offering guests an outstanding entertainment experience and memorable customer service. Through a long-standing company philosophy called Caring the Boyd Way, Boyd Gaming is committed to advancing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives that positively impact the Company's stakeholders and communities. For additional Company information and press releases, visit https://investors.boydgaming.com . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boyd-gaming-announces-additional-500-million-share-repurchase-authorization-302324275.html SOURCE Boyd Gaming CorporationWhere to Watch Jackson State vs. Alcorn State on TV or Streaming Live – Nov. 23
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, declared in Abuja on Thursday, that President Bola Tinubu acted in the best interest of Nigeria with the ongoing construction of the Lagos – Calabar Coastal Highway. He also said there’s no decision taken by the president that has ever failed, including this tax reform bill. Umahi who made the declaration while fielding questions from journalists after an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Works, described those criticising President Tinubu on the project as being jealous and envious of his performance. Tinubu had a dream 25 years ago as a governor on the project and divinely actualised for him when he became President by God. He said, “There is envy and jealousy. The people who envy him never believe that he can turn around the economy. And it takes God for him to turn around, adding “There’s no decision taken by the president that has ever failed, including this tax reform bill. “When people stop the suspicion and digest the coastal road project very well, they will know it’s a catalyst for the growth of every state in this country. “Unfortunately for these people that are talking, it is bare land, no houses are there. Even the Oba of Lagos’ land is affected. And he spoke to the president. President said, no, Oba, it is for development. So, if Oba can give his empty land, who else? Related News Make Navy stronger to protect Nigeria’s territorial waters – N’Delta elder statesman Abuja varsity students beg Tinubu, Wike for 10 CNG buses South Africa backs Nigeria’s G20 bid, eyes lithium reserves “Those who are fighting for this land are not even the indigenes of Lagos, even though it doesn’t matter. But you can’t be more Catholic than the Pope. “I know the woman behind it. There’s nothing she has not been talking about, playing all kinds of politics. But I’m equal to the task; I’m a man of courage. We are constructing the road along her contentious direction and nothing will stop it”, he added. He, however, expressed happiness over interaction with the Senate Committee on Works for supporting the president, adding that they see the good work the president is doing. He specifically praised the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Works, Senator Mpigi Barinada, a PDP senator, for moving a motion that Tinubu must continue in 2027 so that he can complete all these projects. “He (Mpigi) was not sure if any other president would have the courage to complete this project. I’m very happy because we are on the same platform pushing these contractors on the heritage projects to see that these projects are completed. “It’s very rare for a president to agree to continue the whole project of his predecessor”, he added.
Middle East latest: Israeli ministers approve a ceasefire deal with HezbollahApple Cash is more than just a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service — it can be used to shop online, in stores or to make in-app purchases.Paul Merson names club with the ‘strongest squad’ in the Premier LeagueBiohong Group Initiates the "Microspherization Technology Era" in Skincare 12-05-2024 09:08 PM CET | Fashion, Lifestyle, Trends Press release from: Getnews / PR Agency: Global Social As a global leader in artificial skin manufacturing and a pioneer in the application of regenerative medicine and synthetic biology in China, the core founding team of Biohong Group has discovered through in-depth research on cell development, regeneration, and repair that the root cause of skin aging, dullness, redness, and swelling is cellular issues. Based on a profound understanding and specialized research of skin and cells, the group has successfully developed the groundbreaking "Dermal Targeting Specific Supramolecule Technology." Image: https://www.getnews.info/uploads/84e90ed1ac5e7671d45769e8781ab0bf.jpg This series of technologies upgrades peptides, collagen, and nucleic acid ingredients, which are widely recognized as difficult to penetrate the skin, target, and deliver precisely. By employing interdisciplinary technical methods, these ingredients have been iterated into Peptide Microspheres, Collagen Microspheres and PDRN Microspheres, breaking through their application limitations and directly reaching target cells. This has achieved targeted enhancement of Peptide Microspheres, strong penetration of Collagen Microspheres, and precise anti-aging of PDRN Microspheres, allowing actives to penetrate to the cellular and organelle level, achieving true precision skincare, and bringing new ideas to the revolutionary upgrade of efficacy materials and precise skincare product solutions. Image: https://www.getnews.info/uploads/9cb614189a3800163e0db0cc7ea81333.jpg Peptides, collagen, and PDRN have been highly regarded for their outstanding efficacy, but their application in cosmetics is limited by issues such as stability, permeability, and targeting. Biohong Group has simulated long-chain botulinum-like peptides using computer modeling, modified with myristoyl group to self-assemble into a stable spherical structure, giving it better permeability, stronger stability, and more significant anti-wrinkle and firming effects. This allows the peptides to increase dermal penetration by 393.14% at the 2-hour time point, significantly increasing collagen fiber content by 460%, and Type IV collagen content by 168%. Additionally, these Peptide Microspheres can carry other active ingredients, achieving intelligent assembly and intelligent dissociation for "multi-effect." For example, Peptide Microspheres combined with melittin form Melittin Microspheres, which can not only achieve precise anti-aging but also actively repair damaged and missing collagen in the body, as well as provide anti-inflammatory, soothing, and whitening effects. Image: https://www.getnews.info/uploads/ab12fb3008e452ede69d3789ac398b7e.jpg Biohong Group, based on its self-developed recombinant human type III collagen, uses microspherization technology to compress extremely it into spherical collagen layer by layer with a particle size of less than 120 nanometers. This disruptive innovation not only greatly enhances the permeability and targeting of collagen but also more accurately replenishes the collagen needed by the skin, promoting cell repair and regeneration. It allows for rapid penetration into the skin, reaching the dermis in 0.5 hours, with an increased permeability rate of 255.14%. Image: https://www.getnews.info/uploads/258d1968c012a858d4b0a26f60fad0d4.jpg PDRN, short for PolyDeoxyRiboNucleotide, has been widely used in skin regeneration and wound healing. Due to its poor stability and weak transdermal ability, it is often delivered to the dermis via microneedles or injections. Biohong Group employs its self-developed spherical PDRN technology to compress PDRN into nanoscale, overcoming the challenges of PDRN's difficulty in penetrating the skin and susceptibility to degradation. This allows it to rapidly penetrate the epidermis in 0.5 hours, with a 427.34% increase in dermal permeability after 1 hour, a 68% increase in DNA repair effects, and a 121% increase in collagen fiber content, enabling PDRN to rapidly penetrate cellular layers and precisely target damaged cells, repairing them and promoting collagen production. Image: https://www.getnews.info/uploads/0f43078db7e02eff185d3240a012720b.jpg The Biohong Group is launching precise cellular regulation skincare technology based on regenerative medicine to the world. From regenerative medicine to precision skincare, Biohong Group, based on regenerative medicine, integrates the interdisciplinary advantages of cell biology, dermatology, synthetic biology, and materials science, continuously innovating in the field of precision skincare from cells to organelles. By regulating at the cellular level and reconstructing new efficacy material solutions, it opens a new chapter in precision skincare. On December 5, 2024, Biohong Group held the "Global Launch Conference of Dermal Targeting Specific Supramolecules (DTSS)" in Xi'an, China, where it launched its precision cell regulation achievement - the "Supramolecular Microsphere Technology," marking a revolutionary breakthrough in precision skincare and ushering in the era of precision cell regulation. Media Contact Company Name: Biohong Group Contact Person: Wang Yidan Email: Send Email [ http://www.universalpressrelease.com/?pr=biohong-group-initiates-the-microspherization-technology-era-in-skincare ] Country: China Website: http://www.biohong.com/ This release was published on openPR.
Third quarter revenue totaled $173.4 million , representing an increase of 19% year-over-year. Trailing four quarter average Net Dollar Retention Rate was 109% at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025 as compared to 119% at the end of third quarter of fiscal 2024 . Third quarter GAAP RPO totaled $775.4 million , representing an increase of 14% year-over-year; third quarter current GAAP RPO totaled $481.4 million , representing an increase of 20% year-over-year. Third quarter non-GAAP RPO totaled $795.6 million , representing an increase of 14% year-over-year; third quarter current non-GAAP RPO totaled $499.4 million , representing an increase of 19% year-over-year. SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HashiCorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCP), The Infrastructure CloudTM company, today announced financial results for its third quarter of fiscal 2025, ended October 31, 2024. “The HashiCorp team delivered strong performance during the third quarter of fiscal 2025, with revenue growth of 19% year-over-year, and 8% growth in $100,000 customers year-over-year” said Dave McJannet, CEO, HashiCorp. “This quarter we gathered our community of customers, practitioners, and partners at HashiConf in Boston, where we announced critical updates across Infrastructure and Security Lifecycle Management product lines, and also continued work towards closing the company's transaction with IBM.” "HashiCorp continued to see promising growth in adoption of the HashiCorp Cloud Platform, with cloud revenues exceeding 17% of total subscription revenue this quarter" said Werner Schwock, Interim CFO & CAO. "New HashiCorp Cloud Platform features announced this quarter will continue to support our Infrastructure Cloud vision.” Proposed Merger with International Business Machines ("IBM") As announced on April 24, 2024, HashiCorp and IBM have entered into a merger agreement under which IBM will acquire HashiCorp for $35.00 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of $6.4 billion. HashiCorp stockholders approved the merger agreement on July 15, 2024. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first calendar quarter of 2025, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the closing conditions in the merger agreement. In light of the proposed transaction with IBM, HashiCorp will not be holding a conference call to discuss financial results or providing financial guidance in conjunction with its third quarter of fiscal 2025 earnings release. Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter Financial Results Revenue: Total revenue was $173.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, up 19% from $146.1 million in the same period last year. Gross Profit: GAAP gross profit was $143.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, representing an 83% gross margin, compared to a GAAP gross profit of $120.5 million and an 82% gross margin in the same period last year. Non-GAAP gross profit was $148.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, representing an 86% non-GAAP gross margin, compared to a non-GAAP gross profit of $125.4 million and an 86% non-GAAP gross margin in the same period last year. Operating Income (Loss): GAAP operating loss was $29.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to GAAP operating loss of $55.6 million in the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating income was $11.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to a non-GAAP operating loss of $10.5 million in the same period last year. Net Income (Loss): GAAP net loss was $13.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to a GAAP net loss of $39.5 million in the same period last year. Non-GAAP net income was $26.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to a non-GAAP net income of $5.6 million in the same period last year. Net Income (Loss) per Share: GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share was $0.06, based on 203.5 million weighted-average shares outstanding in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to a GAAP net loss per share of $0.20 based on 194.6 million weighted-average shares outstanding in the same period last year. Non-GAAP basic and dilutive net income per share were both $0.13, based on 203.5 million and 211.7 million weighted-average shares outstanding, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to a non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per share of $0.03 in the same period last year. Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO): Total RPO was $775.4 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, up from $678.2 million in the same period last year. The current portion of GAAP RPO was $481.4 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, up from $402.1 million at the end of the same period last year. Total non-GAAP RPO was $795.6 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, up from $700.4 million at the end of the same period last year. The current portion of non-GAAP RPO was $499.4 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, up from $420.8 million at the end of the same period last year. Cash, cash equivalents, and investments: Net cash provided by operating activities was $38.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to $8.7 million provided by operating activities in the same period last year. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $1,346.4 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to $1,255.7 million at the end of the same period last year. Reconciliations of GAAP financial measures to the most comparable non-GAAP financial measures have been provided in the tables included in this release. Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter and Recent Operating Highlights HashiCorp ended the third quarter of fiscal 2025 with 4,856 customers, up from 4,709 customers at the end of the previous fiscal quarter, and up from 4,354 customers at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2024. The Company ended the third quarter of fiscal 2025 with 946 customers with equal or greater than $100,000 in Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”), up from 934 customers at the end of the previous fiscal quarter and 877 customers at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2024. Customers with equal to or greater than $100,000 in ARR represented 89% of total revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2025 compared to 89% in the previous fiscal quarter and 89% in the third quarter of fiscal 2024. Quarterly subscription revenue from HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) reached $29.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, up from $26.5 million in the previous fiscal quarter and up from $19.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2024. The Company's trailing four quarter average Net Dollar Retention Rate was 109% at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to 110% in the previous quarter and 119% at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2024. About HashiCorp, Inc. HashiCorp is The Infrastructure CloudTM company, helping organizations automate multi-cloud and hybrid environments with Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Security Lifecycle Management. HashiCorp offers The Infrastructure Cloud on the HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) for managed cloud services, as well as self-hosted enterprise offerings and community source-available products. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit hashicorp.com . All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995, as amended, including, among others, statements about HashiCorp’s business strategy, go-to-market initiatives, revenue growth, and long-term opportunity related to HashiCorp’s product innovation, and the proposed merger with IBM. In some cases you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “likely,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from current expectations and beliefs, including but not limited to risks and uncertainties related to market conditions, HashiCorp and its business as set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) pursuant to our Annual Report on Form 10-K dated March 20, 2024, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q dated December 5, 2024, and our future reports that we may file from time to time with the SEC. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause the actual results for HashiCorp to differ materially from those contained in HashiCorp’s forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and HashiCorp specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required by law. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures In addition to our results determined in accordance with GAAP, we have disclosed non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating loss, non-GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net loss per share, non-GAAP free cash flow and total and current non-GAAP RPOs, which are all non-GAAP financial measures. We have provided tabular reconciliations of each non-GAAP financial measure to its most directly comparable GAAP financial measure at the end of this release. We calculate non-GAAP gross profit as GAAP gross profit before amortization of stock-based compensation included in the amortized expenses of capitalized internal-use software, stock-based compensation expense, and amortization of acquired intangibles included in cost of revenue. We calculate non-GAAP gross margin as GAAP gross margin before the impact of stock-based compensation of capitalized internal-use software, stock-based compensation expense and amortization of acquired intangibles included in cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue. We calculate non-GAAP operating loss as GAAP operating loss before amortization of stock-based compensation of capitalized internal-use software, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangibles, and merger and acquisition-related expenses. We calculate non-GAAP net income (loss) as GAAP net loss before amortization of stock-based compensation of capitalized internal-use software, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangibles, and merger and acquisition-related expenses, which comprise one-time costs associated with advisory, legal, and other professional fees, net of tax adjustments. We calculate non-GAAP net income (loss) per share as non-GAAP net income (loss) divided by weighted average shares outstanding (basic and diluted). We calculate non-GAAP free cash flow as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and capitalized internal-use software costs. Non-GAAP free cash flow as a % of revenue is calculated as non-GAAP free cash flow divided by total revenue. We calculate non-GAAP RPOs as RPOs plus customer deposits, which are refundable pre-paid amounts, based on the timing of when these customer deposits are expected to be recognized as revenue in future periods. The current portion of non-GAAP RPO represents the amount to be recognized as revenue over the next 12 months. Our management team uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing our financial results and believe they are useful to investors, as a supplement to GAAP measures, in evaluating our ongoing operational performance. We believe that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures provides an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing our financial results with other companies in our industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures to investors. Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. In particular, other companies may report non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP loss from operations, non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) per share, non-GAAP free cash flow, non-GAAP RPOs or similarly titled measures but calculate them differently, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, as presented below. This earnings press release and any future releases containing such non-GAAP reconciliations can also be found on the Investor Relations page of our website at https://ir.hashicorp.com . (1) The adjustments relate to the tax impact of stock-based compensation expense and amortization of acquired intangibles. (1) For the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP for the historical periods presented, refer to our prior earning releases. (2) Amount is less than 1%. (1) For the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP for the historical periods presented, refer to our prior earning releases. Investor Contact HashiCorp ir@hashicorp.com Media Contact Kate Lehman HashiCorp media@hashicorp.comNone
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