We discuss the HBO Max film A Christmas Story Christmas and whether or not it is a sequel or a reboot.
In 1983, the world was introduced to A Christmas Story. It has become a classic Christmas movie that families would watch year in and year out during the holidays. Almost forty years later, HBO Max is bringing out A Christmas Story Christmas. The biggest question is, “is it a sequel or a reboot?.” We share all the details surrounding the film with some surprising details you might not know.
What is A Christmas Story Christmas about?
A Christmas Story Christmas follows Ralphie, who is trying his best to navigate life when it throws him a massive curveball. He must put things on the back burner and attempt to give his kids a Christmas worth remembering amid battling a massive loss. The movie was written by Nick Schenk and Clay Kaytis, with the latter directing the movie.
If you have noticed from the trailer, you see that A Christmas Story Christmas returns cast members from the original movie. You have Peter Billingsley as Ralphie, Ian Petrella as Randy Parker, Scott Schwartz as Flick, and Zack Ward as Scut Farkus. Another thing you will notice is quite a few things, including the house used in the film to bring back the nostalgia from the original.
Is A Christmas Story Christmas a reboot or a sequel?
Alright, now, to answer the big question of the day, is A Christmas Story Christmas a reboot or sequel? Funny enough, the answer will probably shock many of you because I know it did me.
A Christmas Story Christmas is actually the EIGHTH installment of the Parker Family franchise. Yes, you read that right, eight installments. So, in doing my research in trying to figure out if this movie is a sequel or reboot, I found out the following movies are all part of this franchise.
- The Phantom of the Open Hearth (1976)
- The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters (1982)
- A Christmas Story (1983)
- The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski (1985)
- Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss (1988)
- It Runs in the Family: My Summer Story (1994)
- A Christmas Story 2 (2012)
- A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
The franchise is based on the book by author Jean Shepherd, “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.” The book was critically acclaimed, leading to the first movie being made, The Phantom of the Open Hearth, in 1976. Of course, as you can see above, we had another film released before A Christmas Story was the first of the series to be released in theaters.
A Christmas Story was met with middle-of-the-back reviews, and the box office returns weren’t as good as they hoped they would be. However, as we all know, the movie has become a cult classic that is watched in homes worldwide. In addition, we had several other films from the franchise from 1985 to 1994, primarily hit-or-miss movies. Finally, after an almost twenty-year hiatus, A Christmas Story 2 was born in 2012. Sadly, the film was butchered by critics and had an audience score of 37% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now we fast forward to January 2022, when Warner Bros. announced there would be another film in the franchise. And this is where you/I find out that the film it is a “legacy sequel.” Basically, that means the film will have some continuation of the original film while obviously taking place in the future. It allows some of that authenticity of the original while bringing a fresh take simultaneously.
Shortly after the announcement, they started shooting the movie in Bulgaria and Hungary. The production team was tasked with bringing back the original film’s old feel with replicas of the house and neighborhood. In this day and age, it’s wild to see how fast they got this film from production to hitting HBO Max in less than ten months. Of course, the script was already written, and they had the idea in place, but to get a cast, crew, and locations all shot, edited, and ready to release in that fast of time was rather wild.
