The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause continues the story of Scott Calvin, the ordinary man who became Santa Claus. Now settled at the North Pole with his wife Carol expecting their first child, Scott faces a fresh threat in Jack Frost, who wants the Santa job for himself. Frost schemes to trick Scott into invoking a little-known escape clause, a manoeuvre that could undo his entire life as Santa. At the same time, Scott tries to keep his double life hidden while hosting Carol's parents for the holidays, and his former wife, her husband and the rest of his extended family become part of the confusion.

Michael Lembeck directed, having also made the second film in the series, followed later by titles such as Tooth Fairy and Queen Bees. Ed Decter and John J. Strauss wrote the screenplay, and Tim Allen returns as Scott and Santa, with Elizabeth Mitchell as Carol, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Ann-Margret and Eric Lloyd among the cast. The film was made for about 12 million dollars and took roughly 85 million dollars worldwide at the box office.

Ratings were modest: on IMDb it sits at 4.9 from around 47,000 votes and on TMDB at 5.6 from about 1,200 votes, while a critics' score of 3.7 from 65 reviews places it below the audience figures.