Jim Carrey’s $351M Fantasy Hit Is Officially One Of Streaming's Biggest Movies At A Surprising Time

Published Oct 8, 2026, 3:34 PM EDT Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics." Jim Carrey is the star of a fantasy movie that is not only one of the most iconic releases for a holiday, but has also resurged on streaming at an interesting and surprising time. Carrey's list of movies includes many noteworthy releases over the years, including classics like The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and more. That said, in recent years, the actor has only kept to a single franchise on the big screen as part of a career slowdown. After 2016's Dark Crimes, the only movies on Carrey's schedule have been Sonic the Hedgehog live-action franchise offerings. Carrey has starred as Dr. Robotnik, aka Eggman, and Professor Gerald Robotnik in three Sonic movies so far, with the actor set to return to the hit franchise in 2027's Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Carrey's first non-Sonic movie in over a decade is also confirmed to be as part of another major franchise, as Carrey was reported to be in talks to star in a live-action The Jetsons movie for Warner Bros. Discovery under director Colin Trevorrow as per Variety in October 2025. Now, fittingly, it is another franchise release, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, that has returned as a streaming hit. Carrey's The Grinch Adaptation Is Crushing Streaming At An Interesting Moment According to FlixPatrol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas has become the 3rd most-watched movie on Peacock in the United States. The live-action Grinch movie's success comes at an interesting time. After all, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is, as its title states, a Christmas movie, but October is the month of another major holiday, Halloween. In addition to that, of all the new movies and TV shows that are coming to Peacock in October, many of them are horror releases. Those include upcoming shows like Crystal Lake and already released movies like Cloverfield, the Paranormal Activity franchise, multiple Scream films, and more. Right now, How the Grinch Stole Christmas has left behind movies like Kill. Bury. Print., Monster House, Trolls Band Together, Blade, Shrek the Third, and more on Peacock's Top 10 Movies chart. The only two films to stand above it are the Dakota Fanning animated Coraline, and, surprisingly, Benedict Cumberbatch's animated The Grinch from 2018. As such, The Grinch movie franchise is dominating Peacock with both the most-watched movie on the streaming service and the 3rd most popular film amid Halloween season, not Christmas. Carrey has no connection to the more recent version of The Grinch. Will He Return To The Dr. Seuss Franchise? How the Grinch Stole Christmas' resurgence on Peacock comes at the perfect time for the franchise and the actor, as Carrey is reportedly ready to make a comeback as the iconic grumpy character. In July, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that a sequel to 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas was in development, and that both Carrey and original franchise director Ron Howard were set to return for the Christmas film. The Grinch movie comes from Dr. Seuss franchise writers, as How the Grinch Stole Christmas sequel is being penned by 2003 The Cat in the Hat scribes Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer. Release Date November 17, 2000 Runtime 104 Minutes Director Ron Howard Movies How The Grinch Stole Christmas