# Scrooged
**Scrooged** is a 1988 American Christmas comedy directed by [Richard Donner](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-donner) and starring [Bill Murray](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-murray) as Frank Cross, a ruthless television network president who is visited by three spirits on [Christmas Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/christmas-eve) in a modern retelling of Charles Dickens's *A Christmas Carol*.[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/scrooged) It was produced by Paramount Pictures, runs 101 minutes, and carries a PG-13 rating.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | November 1988 (theatrical), Paramount Pictures[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/scrooged/reviews) |
| Director / writers | Richard Donner; writers Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue, based on Dickens[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/scrooged) |
| Lead role | Bill Murray as Frank Cross, a network president overseeing a live Christmas Eve broadcast of *A Christmas Carol*[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/scrooged) • [4](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/scrooged) |
| Runtime / rating | 101 minutes, PG-13[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/) |
| Music | Danny Elfman[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/scrooged) |
| Critical score | Metascore 38, "Generally Unfavorable"; 8 of 14 critic reviews negative[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/critic-reviews/) |
| Audience score | IMDb 6.9/10 from about 130,000 users; Metacritic user score 6.8[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/user-reviews/) |
| Early box office | $18.6 million over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend of 1988[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-04-ca-1175-story.html) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and cast
Frank Cross has risen from the mailroom to network president and is mean, uncaring, and unforgiving, qualities the studio's synopsis calls perfect for a modern-day Scrooge. He is producing a gaudy live Christmas Eve broadcast of Dickens's story while treating his staff with contempt; the spirit of his late mentor Lew Hayward ([John Forsythe](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-forsythe)) appears, followed by the [Ghost of Christmas Past](https://www.edgepedia.org/ghost-of-christmas-past) ([David Johansen](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-johansen)), the Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane), and a ghoulish messenger from the future.[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/scrooged)
The supporting cast includes [Karen Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/karen-allen) as Claire Phillips, Frank's former love; [Bobcat Goldthwait](https://www.edgepedia.org/bobcat-goldthwait) as the fired staffer Eliot Loudermilk; John Glover as Brice Cummings; [Robert Mitchum](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-mitchum) as network boss Preston Rhinelander; and Alfre Woodard as Grace Cooley.[8](https://waarkanikdatkijken.nl/scrooged) The film's writers, Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue, came out of the same comedy world as Murray; O'Donoghue, an early *Saturday Night Live* writer, was known for a brutally dark style of humor.[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/scrooged) • [4](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/scrooged)
## Adaptation approach
The film relocates Dickens's tale to contemporary New York and makes its Scrooge figure a workaholic executive too caught up in producing a live televised *A Christmas Carol* to care about his colleagues or his long-suffering secretary.[9](https://www.guthrietheater.org/globalassets/2-shows--tickets/202021/dickens-holiday-classic/dhc-large-print-program.pdf) The BFI's program notes describe the long-suffering Bob Cratchit figure as reworked into a black secretary, and the in-film broadcast casts [Buddy Hackett](https://www.edgepedia.org/buddy-hackett) as Scrooge with a female Tiny Tim who back-flips rather than hobbles.[10](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/christmas%20films/2022/12/17/scrooged/) A contemporary Los Angeles Times piece grouped the film with other 1988 Dickens-derived releases as loose, commercial updating rather than genuine adaptation, while noting its strong opening business.[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-04-ca-1175-story.html)
## Reception
**Critics were largely negative at release.** Metacritic records a Metascore of 38 from 14 reviews, classified as Generally Unfavorable, with 8 negative, 3 mixed, and 3 positive.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/critic-reviews/) Roger Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times review scored it 2.5 stars, calling it disquieting and saying its overriding emotions seemed to be pain and anger; the New York Times's Vincent Canby wrote that it works in fits and starts, with the sentimental story interrupting what are essentially revue sketches.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/critic-reviews/) Favorable reviews included the Boston Globe's Jay Carr, who called it a Christmas movie with Christmas spirit, and [Gene Siskel](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-siskel), who found its first half very funny.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/critic-reviews/)
Audience measures have been kinder. IMDb shows 6.9/10 from about 130,000 ratings, and Metacritic's user score is 6.8, with 60% of user reviews positive.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/user-reviews/) The film was nominated for one Oscar and has 1 win and 5 nominations in total.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/) The BFI notes that it has gradually built a cult following and now ranks as a Christmas favorite.[10](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/christmas%20films/2022/12/17/scrooged/)
## Place among Christmas Carol adaptations
The Dickens Project's adaptation chronology lists *Scrooged* as the 1988 feature-film entry in a lineage running from a 1901 silent short through the 1951 [Alastair Sim](https://www.edgepedia.org/alastair-sim) *Scrooge*, the 1983 *Mickey's Christmas Carol*, and beyond.[11](https://dickens.ucsc.edu/education/a-little-book-about-a-christmas-carol/adaptations/) A UCL thesis on Cold War-era Christmas film places it in a late-1980s Hollywood return to hybrid-genre holiday movies alongside the horror-tinged *Gremlins* (1984) and the action film *Die Hard*, and calls it Hollywood's first mainstream Christmas film with a Dickensian focus in over four decades.[12](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200664/2/Vaughn%20Joy%20-%20A%20Cold%20War%20Christmas.pdf) Later commentary has kept it in the canon: a Tom's Guide roundup of the best *A Christmas Carol* adaptations describes Murray as at the peak of his 1980s comedy-star powers, and a 2022 Time piece on the musical *Spirited* cites *Scrooged* as the adaptation many people know without having read the original text.[13](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/streaming/5-best-a-christmas-carol-adaptations-to-stream-right-now) • [14](https://time.com/6235153/spirited-a-christmas-carol-history/)
## Production background
Director Richard Donner, born in the Bronx in 1930, had directed *The Omen*, *Superman*, *The Goonies*, and *Lethal Weapon* before *Scrooged*; his later credits include *Maverick* and *16 Blocks*, and he died in July 2021.[15](https://www.dga.org/Craft/VisualHistory/Interviews/Richard-Donner) In a 1988 television interview with Austin critic Roy Faires, Donner discussed the difficulty of turning a beloved holiday classic into a comedy.[16](https://texasarchive.org/2014_00575) According to *The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray* by Robert Schnakenberg, Murray found the experience unpleasant and had no interest in pursuing another holiday-themed project.[17](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/after-finding-out-tim-allen-wasnt-the-santa-clause-first-choice-wondering-what-these-actors-would-have-done)
## Home media and streaming
The film first appeared on DVD on November 9, 1999.[18](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/scrooged/7089/where-to-watch/) Digital availability shifts frequently: as of early October 2026 it could be rented from about $3.99 on services including Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and Plex, bought from $4.99, and streamed free with ads on Hoopla and YouTube Free, while it was not on Netflix, Disney+, or Prime Video in the United States.[18](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/scrooged/7089/where-to-watch/) • [19](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/scrooged?package=jwt) In the Netherlands it was available to rent or buy via Apple iTunes and [Google Play](https://www.edgepedia.org/google-play) as of September 2026.[8](https://waarkanikdatkijken.nl/scrooged) [Paramount+](https://www.edgepedia.org/paramount) lists the film as streaming from November 1 for the holiday season.[20](https://www.paramountplus.com/movies/video/t_Qos1uW__kMIQv3ISrYzLo_uSjkTu8T/)
## References
1. [Scrooged, Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/scrooged)
2. [Scrooged (1988), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/)
3. [Scrooged Reviews, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/scrooged/reviews)
4. [Scrooged Parents' Guide & Movie Review, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/scrooged)
5. [Scrooged Critic Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/critic-reviews/)
6. [Scrooged User Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/scrooged/user-reviews/)
7. ['Oliver' and 'Scrooged'--Fast-Food McDickens, Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1988](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-04-ca-1175-story.html)
8. [Scrooged (1988) kijken, waarkanikdatkijken.nl](https://waarkanikdatkijken.nl/scrooged)
9. [A Christmas Carol and Its Adaptations, Guthrie Theater program](https://www.guthrietheater.org/globalassets/2-shows--tickets/202021/dickens-holiday-classic/dhc-large-print-program.pdf)
10. [Scrooged, BFI Southbank Programme Notes (John Pym, Monthly Film Bulletin, December 1988)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/christmas%20films/2022/12/17/scrooged/)
11. [Adaptations, The Dickens Project, UC Santa Cruz](https://dickens.ucsc.edu/education/a-little-book-about-a-christmas-carol/adaptations/)
12. [A Cold War Christmas, UCL Discovery thesis](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200664/2/Vaughn%20Joy%20-%20A%20Cold%20War%20Christmas.pdf)
13. [5 best 'A Christmas Carol' adaptations to stream right now, Tom's Guide](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/streaming/5-best-a-christmas-carol-adaptations-to-stream-right-now)
14. [How Spirited Continues a Long Legacy of Christmas Carol Adaptations, Time](https://time.com/6235153/spirited-a-christmas-carol-history/)
15. [Visual History with Richard Donner, Directors Guild of America](https://www.dga.org/Craft/VisualHistory/Interviews/Richard-Donner)
16. [Richard Donner Interview and Movie Reviews (1988), Roy Faires Collection, Texas Archive of the Moving Image](https://texasarchive.org/2014_00575)
17. [After Finding Out Tim Allen Wasn't The Santa Clause's First Choice, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/after-finding-out-tim-allen-wasnt-the-santa-clause-first-choice-wondering-what-these-actors-would-have-done)
18. [Scrooged - Where to Watch, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/scrooged/7089/where-to-watch/)
19. [Scrooged streaming: where to watch online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/scrooged?package=jwt)
20. [Scrooged Trailer, Paramount+](https://www.paramountplus.com/movies/video/t_Qos1uW__kMIQv3ISrYzLo_uSjkTu8T/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Satirical, black, and parody comedies of the 1980s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license