How the Grinch Stole Christmas

"You better watch out!"

2000 1h 45m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

🥫

50%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.4

IMDB

★6.8TMDB · 8,484🥫50%Rotten Tomatoes●46Metacritic★6.4IMDB · 331,546

FamilyComedyFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The Grinch decides to rob Whoville of Christmas - but a dash of kindness from little Cindy Lou Who and her family may be enough to melt his heart...

“You better watch out!”

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Cast

Jim Carrey
Grinch
Taylor Momsen
Cindy Lou Who
Jeffrey Tambor
Mayor Augustus Maywho
Christine Baranski
Martha May Whovier
Bill Irwin
Lou Lou Who
Molly Shannon
Betty Lou Who
Clint Howard
Whobris
Josh Ryan Evans
8-Year-Old Grinch

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, Bob Camp
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America, Germany

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$123M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Germany.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Donald Peterman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Daniel P. Hanley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen and Jeffrey Tambor carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ron Howard directs. Donald Peterman behind the camera. James Horner scores. Daniel P. Hanley cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America, Germany. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$123M budget — tentpole studio territory.
226 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Germany.
4Part of the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Donald Peterman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Daniel P. Hanley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen and Jeffrey Tambor carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "You better watch out!".
10IMDB entry: tt0170016 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 11 themes, including "new love", "based on novel or book", "holiday", "christmas party".
12Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Donald Peterman
Original score: James Horner
Editing: Daniel P. Hanley
Production design: Michael Corenblith
Costume design: Rita Ryack
Makeup / hair: Ve Neill
VFX supervisor: Kurt Williams
Stunt coordinator: Charles Croughwell
Runtime: 105 min · 1h 45m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $123,000,000
Box office: $345,800,000
Return: 281% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes: 50% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 46/100
IMDB rating: 6.4/10 · 331,546 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 18 wins & 37 nominations total

Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie
MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Collection

The Grinch decides to rob Whoville of Christmas - but a dash of kindness from little Cindy Lou Who and her family may be enough to melt his heart...

Also by

Ron Howard

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Kamurai2020-07-27
★ 7/10
Really good watch, will eventually watch again, and can recommend, but less so for younger audiences. I never remembered all the weird adult humor in this, it is usually just the charming grinchiness of Jim Carey's overacting that sticks with me, and maybe the Christmas spirit of Mary Lou Who. The movie manages to ride this wonderfully line between keeping the spirit of the book (even rhyming at times) and being new and refreshing, but it does do that by playing to the adults that would have read the book as a child rather than endearing a new generation of children, but I think they intended to try to do both. Jim Carey embodies the Grinch like no one else possibly could (I think Mike Myers proved that in "The Cat in the Hat"), and that is the majority of this so if you don't enjoy him, then you won't enjoy this movie. I do think they added some refreshing character interactions, though some of the execution is much better than others. While it is far from a perfect movie, my biggest gripe is their stupid noses: it seriously bothers me the entire movie. It bothers me more than them dressing the Grinch, which points out that he is naked a LOT with his "co lead" being a young girl: you can see it just distracts from the spirit of the movie. I don't think that everyone is going to love this movie, but it's hard to imagine that people will hate it.
Peter89Spencer2020-12-13
★ 7/10
I'm not gonna lie, this version of the Grinch scared the crap out of me when I was a kid! But as I got older I started to get use to it. The trick was to just listen to the whole thing without looking at it and gradually (each year take a peak).
Andre Gonzales2023-06-27
★ 7/10
At first I didn't like this movie. It's one of my daughters favorites tho. So she would always want to watch a lot around Christmas time. Now I don't mind it and it's like a Christmas tradition for us now to watch this movie.