is calico corners still in business
is calico corners still in business
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.NYT Connections hints and answers for December 6: Tips to solve 'Connections' #544.BBC radio icon Tony Blackburn , who clinched the title in the inaugural series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2002, graced The One Show alongside Loose Women panellist Judi Love tonight. Chatting with hosts Alex Jones and Roman Kemp, Tony reminisced about his jungle stint two decades after triumphing in the ITV contest. While Tony offered some fascinating anecdotes from his time on the show, he left the presenters momentarily lost for words with a particularly candid comment in response to Alex's query. "Tony, you won it, you were the first king of the jungle," Alex remarked. "What advice would you give to the campmates?" In a deadpan tone, Tony retorted: "Don't do it." The unexpected quip had Roman and Alex in fits of laughter, clearly taken aback by the frankness of his advice, reports Wales Online . "Get out of there," chimed in Alex, before Tony explained he was "making a joke". Delving into his jungle days, Tony shared: "It's a hard show to do. I'm a vegetarian and I didn't have to eat all that stuff. "I couldn't do it now - it's horrible, the stuff they have to eat," he said, visibly cringing. "But I think you've just got to be yourself on, it because that's all you can do." I'm A Celebrity 2024 boasts one of the most glittering line-ups yet, featuring fan favourites such as Love Island's Maura Higgins, McFly's Danny Jones, and Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse, all competing for the coveted jungle crown. Tonight, the campmates on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! will be seen competing fiercely for a golden ticket that ensures their safety from the next two eliminations by granting them immunity. This shake-up to the classic Celebrity Cyclone challenge has not sat well with some fans, prompting accusations against ITV for "ruining" the beloved series and sparking a flurry of dissatisfaction across social media. On X, the platform once known as Twitter, a disgruntled viewer expressed: "Nah, not up for this at all. Taking part in the cyclone is a privilege bestowed by the viewers. You've actually ruined a great series by doing this. And we all know it'll be Colleen." (sic) Another added their voice to the criticism, stating: "If this is an immunity thing, please don't. It skews the order in which the public vote them out. I'm always suspicious of this. You know who is likely to be up next and are trying to save them unfairly." Nevertheless, there are those who revel in the excitement of the contest; one enthused fan said: "Soooo good! Love it." (sic) The One Show airs weekdays from 7pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! airs every night at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.
With the new year coming in, there is also something else inching closer, and that is the shortfall of Social Security. As a fear that has been building up for decades, the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees confirmed it this year when they released a report detailing the current and projected financial status of the two programs each year, and the outlook is not great. Considering this, it is not surprising that according to a Nationwide survey 84% of Americans aged 60 to 65 fear that their benefits will be cut. Another paralyzing fear this group of surveyed individuals have is inflation, which is a natural response to the impact it has had on their finances in the last few years. This is compounded by the fact that many seniors are dependent at least in some way on Social Security benefits, as for most it is a large part of their income, and for many the sole income they have. This dependence on assistance makes reports like the one that came out this year even scarier, as they do not paint a pretty picture. The shortfall of Social Security, a sure thing? Nothing is a sure thing in life, but the current state of the system is not promising. Social Security’s primary source of revenue is the money it collects in payroll taxes, which are supplemented by the money stored in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund to pay out the full extent of the benefits that the program sustains today. Since payroll taxes will keep coming in for the foreseeable future, a part of the program will be active for as long as this happens. The problem is that there are a lot more beneficiaries coming into the program than workers replacing them, especially at the contribution level of those leaving the workforce. This is where the Trust Funds come into play. For years now the Trust Funds have been making up the difference between the payroll taxes and the benefits paid out, but these are also running out of money and there is no plan in place to replenish them, with the consequence that program may have to cut benefits if no solutions are put in place. According to the report “The OASI Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2033, unchanged from last year’s report. At that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 79 percent of scheduled benefits. The DI Trust Fund is projected to be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits through at least 2098, the last year of this report’s projection period. Last year’s report projected that the DI Trust Fund would be able to pay scheduled benefits through at least 2097, the last year of that report’s projection period. If the OASI Trust Fund and the DI Trust Fund projections are combined, the resulting projected fund (designated OASDI) would be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2035, one year later than reported last year. At that time, the projected fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing total fund income will be sufficient to pay 83 percent of scheduled benefits .” These numbers explain the panic that many Americans are going through, but this is not the first time the program has been under peril. Lawmakers have the power to change some of the funding strategies and policies that would shore up the program for generations to come, but no agreement has been reached yet, as both sides of the political aisle seem to be in conflict about how to save the program. While waiting for a solution may be tempting, the best course of action for future retirees is to make their retirement savings a priority by maxing out retirement plans, including catch-up contributions and squirreling away as much as possible in savings.It didn’t take much to stir Jack Eichel’s national pride in looking ahead to representing the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament . Appearing on a Team USA Zoom call on Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights forward jumped right in when reminded how U.S. teams featuring NHL players competing in best-on-best international tournaments haven’t won a gold medal since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey series. “I’ll take it,” Eichel interjected after Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy apologized for not hearing the question. “I think there’s a lot to prove for us as USA Hockey,” Eichel said. “I think for a while it was Canada on a pedestal by themselves. And I think for us, we feel like we’ve closed that gap. And I think this is a great opportunity to prove that.” From the Boston area, Eichel supported his case by referring to the growing pool of American talent that’s entered the NHL though the U.S. national development program over the past decade. And that’s reflected in how a majority of the U.S. team’s 23-player roster is made up of USNDP alumni, Eichel included. “Obviously, we feel very confident in our group and the names on our roster,” Eichel said. “But that’s only half the battle. You’ve got to go out there and do it. And we’re excited for that opportunity.” The 4 Nations Face-Off was unveiled last All-Star Weekend. It splits NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the U.S. into four teams, replacing the All-Star Game format this season. Eichel’s comments came a day after the nations unveiled their entire rosters to compete in the NHL/NHL Players' Association-backed tournament being split between Montreal and Boston and running from Feb. 12-20. Though talented, the Americans have lacked success at the senior international level. The U.S. last medaled at the world championships by winning bronze in 2021, and hasn’t placed better than third since 1960 at Squaw Valley, which also doubled as the Winter Games. The Americans' last Olympic gold came with amateurs competing at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, since dubbed the “Miracle On Ice,” while winning silver medals with NHL players in 2002 and 2010 — both times losing to Canada. And then there was 1996, when goalie Mike Richter earned World Cup MVP honors in helping the Americans beat Canada in a decisive Game 3 of the final series. “I think we check every box there is,” McAvoy said. “I think the confidence amongst us in our group should be sky high.” Story continues below video The U.S. team’s brain trust, headed by Wild GM Bill Guerin and Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, prioritized experience over potential in filling out the 17 remaining roster spots. Forwards Chris Kreider, of the Rangers, and Brock Nelson, of the Islanders, are the oldest players on the team at age 33, and have extensive world championships experience. The youngest player is also the only one with Olympic experience: 22-year-old Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber, who played at the Beijing Games in 2022 when the NHL pulled out because of pandemic-related scheduling issues. They’ll go up against a talent-laden Team Canada that features forwards Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar. The U.S. team is particularly strong down the middle with Eichel, Auston Matthews and Dylan Larkin. Another strength is in net with a trio led by two-time Vezina Trophy-winner Connor Hellebuyck and rounded out by Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman. USA Hockey has enjoyed its most success in winning two of the past four world junior championships and six since 2004. Four Nations teammates McAvoy, Oettinger and defenseman Adam Fox were members of the U.S. team that won the 2017 world junior title. Team Canada officials also went with a veteran-laden group, featuring 14 players who have won at least one Stanley Cup title. “You can’t put a price tag on experience,” Canada and Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Thursday. “I truly believe this is a tournament where you’re basically playing three Game 7s (in the preliminary round). ... There’s no real margin for error," he added. “This is as competitive a group as you will find. Every one of these players will lay in traffic for their country." The Canadian Press contributed to this story. AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
GSA Capital Partners LLP Trims Holdings in Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX)Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. trimmed its stake in TD SYNNEX Co. ( NYSE:SNX – Free Report ) by 0.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 497,520 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,693 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in TD SYNNEX were worth $59,742,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in TD SYNNEX by 58.9% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,716,372 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $313,469,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006,569 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of TD SYNNEX by 8.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,239,852 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $258,482,000 after buying an additional 177,460 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in TD SYNNEX by 21.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,546,105 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $178,421,000 after acquiring an additional 269,759 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd grew its stake in TD SYNNEX by 131.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,371,737 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $158,298,000 after acquiring an additional 777,924 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in TD SYNNEX by 20.1% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,055,045 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $121,752,000 after acquiring an additional 176,571 shares during the last quarter. 84.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Analyst Ratings Changes A number of brokerages have recently commented on SNX. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of TD SYNNEX in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Loop Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of TD SYNNEX in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of TD SYNNEX in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of TD SYNNEX from $131.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of TD SYNNEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.75. TD SYNNEX Price Performance SNX opened at $118.99 on Friday. TD SYNNEX Co. has a 52-week low of $96.93 and a 52-week high of $133.85. The company has a 50 day moving average of $119.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $119.65. The company has a market cap of $10.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. TD SYNNEX ( NYSE:SNX – Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The business services provider reported $2.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.80 by $0.06. TD SYNNEX had a net margin of 1.20% and a return on equity of 12.15%. The firm had revenue of $14.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that TD SYNNEX Co. will post 11.03 earnings per share for the current year. TD SYNNEX Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 11th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 11th. TD SYNNEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.70%. Insiders Place Their Bets In other TD SYNNEX news, insider Simon Leung sold 6,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.17, for a total value of $769,689.33. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 23,339 shares in the company, valued at $2,874,664.63. The trade was a 21.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website . Also, insider Dennis Polk sold 15,689 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.93, for a total value of $1,834,514.77. Following the sale, the insider now owns 134,706 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,751,172.58. This represents a 10.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders sold a total of 69,645 shares of company stock worth $8,414,329 in the last 90 days. 1.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders. TD SYNNEX Company Profile ( Free Report ) TD SYNNEX Corporation operates as a distributor and solutions aggregator for the information technology (IT) ecosystem. The company offers personal computing devices and peripherals, mobile phones and accessories, printers, supplies, and endpoint technology software; and data center technologies, such as hybrid cloud, security, storage, networking, servers, technology software, and converged and hyper-converged infrastructure, as well as computing components. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding SNX? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for TD SYNNEX Co. ( NYSE:SNX – Free Report ). 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The Cutting Edge: Evolution of Surgical Robots in Modern Medicine 11-23-2024 11:39 AM CET | Advertising, Media Consulting, Marketing Research Press release from: The Business Research Company The Business Research Company recently released a comprehensive report on the Global Surgical Robots Market Size and Trends Analysis with Forecast 2024-2033. This latest market research report offers a wealth of valuable insights and data, including global market size, regional shares, and competitor market share. Additionally, it covers current trends, future opportunities, and essential data for success in the industry. According to The Business Research Company's, The surgical robots market size has grown rapidly in recent years. It will grow from $8.14 billion in 2023 to $9.71 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.3%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, growing aging population, high precision and accuracy requirements, increased healthcare spending, surge in robotic-assisted procedures. The surgical robots market size is expected to see rapidly grown in the next few years. It will grow to $20.28 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to expansion of indications for robotic surgery, increasing adoption in emerging markets, demand for remote surgery solutions, customization and personalization trends, regulatory approvals and standards. Major trends in the forecast period include ai integration for surgical precision, rise of miniaturized surgical robots, telesurgery and remote surgical capabilities, increased use of robotics in non-invasive surgeries, haptic feedback technology. Get The Complete Scope Of The Report @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/surgical-robots-global-market-report Market Drivers and Trends: The increasing elderly and surgical patient populations are expected to propel the growth of the surgical robot market going forward. The growing elderly and surgical patient populations substantially impact the use and development of surgical robots. Minimally invasive procedures performed by surgery robots are used to reduce patient trauma, shorten recovery times, and cut complication rates. These benefits are critical for aged people to lower mortality and morbidity rates. For instance, according to October 2021 published factsheet by World Health Organization, a Switzerland-based governing body, there will be 1.4 billion individuals over the age of 60 in the world by 2030. Further, according to the American Joint Replacement Registry's 2022 Annual Report, released on November 2022, hip and knee arthroplasty cases in the US reached around 2.8 million in 2022, an increase of 14% from 2021. Therefore, increasing elderly and surgical patient populations drive the surgical robot market. Technological advancements are a key trend gaining popularity in the surgical robot market. Major companies in the surgical robot sector are focused on developing new technologies to improve patient outcomes and strengthen their market position. For instance, in November 2021, Smith+Nephew, a UK-based medical equipment manufacturing company, Launched CORI handheld robotics, a turn-key robotic-assisted surgical system for total and partial knee arthroplasties. It is designed with a 3-D intra-operative imaging system and robotic sculpting tool that allows surgeons to measure, plan, and perform knee surgery. The system is a compact and fully mobile solution with minimal set-up time and can be moved from theatre to theatre to optimize the flow of patients through surgical units. Key Benefits for Stakeholders: • Comprehensive Market Insights: Stakeholders gain access to detailed market statistics, trends, and analyses that help them understand the current and future landscape of their industry. • Informed Decision-Making: The reports provide crucial data that support strategic decisions, reducing risks and enhancing business planning. • Competitive Advantage: With in-depth competitor analysis and market share information, stakeholders can identify opportunities to outperform their competition. • Tailored Solutions: The Business Research Company offers customized reports that address specific needs, ensuring stakeholders receive relevant and actionable insights. • Global Perspective: The reports cover various regions and markets, providing a broad view that helps stakeholders expand and operate successfully on a global scale. Ready to Dive into Something Exciting? Get Your Free Exclusive Sample of Our Research Report @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=10032&type=smp Major Key Players of the Market: Stryker Corporation; Medrobotics Corporation; Smith & Nephew plc; TransEnterix Inc.; Renishaw plc; Intuitive Surgical Inc.; Medtronic plc; THINK Surgical Inc.; Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; Titan Medical Inc.; Mazor Robotics Ltd.; KUKA Aktiengesellschaft; Avatera Medical GmbH; Corindus Vascular Robotics Inc.; MicroSure (Pty) Ltd; Asensus Surgical Inc.; Siemens Healthcare GmbH; CMR Surgical Ltd.; Auris Health Inc.; Verb Surgical Inc.; OMNIlife Science Inc.; Vicarious Surgical Inc.; Microbot Medical Inc.; Virtual Incision Corporation; Memic Innovative Surgery Ltd.; XACT Robotics Ltd.; EndoMaster Pte. Ltd.; MST Medical Surgery Technologies Ltd.; Medtech SA Surgical Robots Market 2024 Key Insights: • The surgical robots market size will grow to $20.28 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2%. • Surge In Elderly And Surgical Patient Populations Fuels Growth Of Surgical Robot Market • Technological Advancements Drive Innovation In The Surgical Robot Market • North America was the largest region in the surgical robots market in 2023 We Offer Customized Report, Click @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/Customise?id=10032&type=smp Contact Us: The Business Research Company Europe: +44 207 1930 708 Asia: +91 88972 63534 Americas: +1 315 623 0293 Email: info@tbrc.info Follow Us On: LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/the-business-research-company Twitter: https://twitter.com/tbrc_info YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24_fI0rV8cR5DxlCpgmyFQ Learn More About The Business Research Company The Business Research Company ( www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com ) is a leading market intelligence firm renowned for its expertise in company, market, and consumer research. With a global presence, TBRC's consultants specialize in diverse industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, chemicals, and technology, providing unparalleled insights and strategic guidance to clients worldwide. This release was published on openPR.Biden’s pardon: A gift to adversaries and a fresh blow to US credibility
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At Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport, more than a year of war has taken its toll. Global airlines have canceled flights, gates are empty and pictures of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip guide the few arriving passengers to baggage claim. But one check-in desk remains flush with travelers: the one serving flights to the United Arab Emirates, which have kept up a bridge for Israelis to the outside world throughout the war. The Emirati flights, in addition to bolstering airlines' bottom lines, have shined a light on the countries' burgeoning ties — which have survived the wars raging across the Middle East and could be further strengthened as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to office. "It's a political and economic statement," said Joshua Teitelbaum, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Israel's BarIlan University. "They are the main foreign airlines that continue to fly." Since the wars began with Hamas' initial Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, many international airlines have halted, restarted and halted again their flights into Israel's main gateway to the rest of the world. The concern is real for the carriers, who remember the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine 10 years ago and Iran shooting down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 after takeoff from Tehran in 2020. But FlyDubai, the sister airline to the long-haul carrier Emirates, has kept up multiple flights daily and kept Israel connected to the wider world even as its other low-cost competitors have stopped flights. Abu Dhabi's Etihad has continued its flights as well. While maintaining the flight schedule remains politically important for the UAE after its 2020 diplomatic recognition of Israel, it also provided a further shot in the arm for revenues — particularly for FlyDubai. Since the Israeli's wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon started, international carriers such as Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Germany's Lufthansa and other major airlines halted their flights. Some resumed, only to stop again after Iran's Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel and Israel's Oct. 26 retaliatory strike on the Islamic Republic. Tehran has threatened to strike Israel again. That's brought major business to Israel's national carrier El Al, which had struggled in the coronavirus pandemic and prior years. The airline posted its bestever half-year results this year, recording a $227 million profit as compared to $58 million profit in the same period last year. El Al stock has risen by as much 200% over the past year, as compared to a 29% rise in the wider Tel Aviv 125 stock market index. El Al, however, lacks the routes and connections of major international carriers. Low-cost carriers as well have stopped flying into Israel during periods of the war, sending the price of El Al tickets ever higher. Passenger numbers through Ben Gurion halved compared to the same period the year before, El Al said in its second-quarter financial results. However, FlyDubai has kept flying. The carrier has operated more than 1,800 flights to Israel since October 2023, cancelling only 77 flights overall, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. In September alone, it flew more than 200 flights. As a line snaked toward the FlyDubai check-in counters at Ben Gurion Airport, UAE-bound Motti Eis said the flights were "a symbol that the Emirates countries decided to keep the peace." FlyDubai declined to answer questions from The Associated Press about the flights. Etihad, the flag carrier for Abu Dhabi, has kept flying into Tel Aviv, but the number of its flights has been dwarfed by FlyDubai. FlyDubai had 3.6% market share at Ben Gurion, compared to El Al's 43.2% in the second half of 2024. However, at least two of the foreign low-cost airlines with greater market, Wizz Air and Blue Bird, stopped flying for extended periods this year. Etihad said it maintains a close watch on the situation in the region, but continues its daily flights to and from Tel Aviv. "Ben Gurion International Airport remains open, employing best practices in safety and security practices, enabling Etihad and other airlines to provide essential air connectivity as long as it is secure to do so," the airline said in a statement. Beyond the financial impact, the decision also takes root in the UAE's decision to recognize Israel in 2020 under agreements brokered by President Donald Trump known as the Abraham Accords. While Abu Dhabi has repeatedly expressed concern and outrage at Israel's conduct during the wars, Israel's consulate in Dubai and embassy remain open in the country. And while Dubai, broadly speaking, remains focused on business in the country, Abu Dhabi's focus long has been on its geopolitical aims — which since the 2011 Arab Spring have been squarely focused on challenging Islamist movements and those who back them in the wider region. The UAE, a hereditary autocracy, long has viewed those groups as serious challenges to its power. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
