It’s science!
Film industry data researcher Stephen Follows is doing the lord’s work:
Ok, enough bickering and fighting. Let’s settle this once and for all in the only way I know how – going into a topic in way too much detail.
As we prepare to enter the year 32 ADH (a.k.a. After Die Hard), the world is gripped by a constantly nagging question.
No, it’s not “Why does everyone call Hans Gruber and his gang ‘terrorists’ when they were clearly bank robbers?”
Today we’re going to use data to answer the question “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?”
Along the way, we’re going to test Die Hard’s Christmas bona fides against all movies in US cinemas for the past thirty years, using a variety of methods.
I have put details of my sources and methodology at the end of the article. The short story is that unless I say otherwise, the data for ‘all movies’ relates to all movies shown in US cinemas between 1988 (ie the year of our Lord John McClane) and 2017.
I consider the matter settled.
Blinding us with science, eh?