Santa Clause

The Santa Clause is a 1994 American Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by John Pasquin, produced by Brian Reilly, Jeffrey Silver, and Robert Newmyer, and written by the writing team of Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick. The first installment in The Santa Clause franchise, it stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, a divorced marketing executive who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall from his roof to his presumed death on Christmas Eve, inadvertently agreeing to a contract that forces him to take up the mantle.

The Santa Clause premiered at the Village Theater in Westwood on November 5, 1994, and was theatrically released by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution in the United States on November 11. It grossed $190.5 million worldwide against a $22 million budget, and received positive reviews from critics, and it has since become a Christmas-time staple among viewers. Its success led to two sequels, The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), both of which were commercially successful despite the former's mixed and the latter's negative reception. The franchise continued with a follow-up series, The Santa Clauses, which premiered November 16, 2022 on Disney+.