Movie Preview: December 2025

Welcome to the final month of the year! And Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

After a historically bad October, this past November was much better as “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2” gave the box office a much needed kick of adrenaline. As a whole, the month earned $794.4 million total domestically, which is below last November’s $900.7 million total when “Wicked” and “Moana 2” ruled, and a far cry from the November record of $1.09 billion in 2012, but we’ll take the wins that we can get. Both “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2” should carry on throughout the Christmas holiday, especially worldwide for the latter, which opened to over $500 million worldwide, boosted by a huge opening in China that doubled its domestic debut.

The Christmas box office will add at least one huge blockbuster release to the mix, which could perhaps wind up as the movie of the year if history tells us anything. A good deal of question marks with the rest of the schedule, but there will at least be options for people, which includes snakes, killer animatronics, ping pong, SpongeBob, and Neil Diamond music. So let’s dive in and explore what Santa is bringing to a theater near you this holiday season!

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. The movies listed are the ones currently scheduled for a wide release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

December 5 – 7

Universal's "Five Nights at Freddy's 2"

The main new attraction to theaters this past weekend, joining the ranks of “Zootopia 2” and “Wicked: For Good,” was another fellow second film in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. An adaptation of the popular video game series, the first movie told the story of security guard Mike Schmidt, played by Josh Hutcherson, who takes a job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, an abandoned pizzeria, soon to learn that the pizzeria’s animatronics are possessed by the spirits of children murdered decades earlier by serial killer William Afton, played by Matthew Lillard. Now we’re a year later in this second movie with more secrets to reveal and origins to discover. Mike’s 11-year-old sister Abby, who had established a connection with the animatronics in the first movie, has had the fate of her friends hidden from her. They call out to her, though, so she heads out to try to find them. And that sets into motion the rest of the plot. The first movie was a massive success, opening to a staggering $80 million. It fell off the face of the Earth after with a huge 76 percent second weekend drop and had a huge disparity in reviews between fans of the game and everyone else, so the projections for this second film were all over the map. Both Box Office Pro and Deadline had it pegged in the $35-45 million range going into the weekend. After Thursday previews, The-Numbers projected it at $55 million. It beat all of those projections quite handily with a $64 million debut, so a drop-off from the first, but not by very much. And more than enough to easily cover the production budget in just one weekend. Reviews were even more polarized than the first, with a 15 percent critics score and an 88 percent audience score from Rotten Tomatoes, so it’s likely to take another massive tumble in weekend 2, but with this result in the bag, you can be guaranteed that a third movie will be on the way before too long.

“Zootopia 2” and “Wicked: For Good” rounded out the top 3 with $43.4 million and $17.4 million, respectively. That trio of second films accounted for over 80 percent of the total weekend box office, so that’s what most people were interested in, but there were quite a few smaller options that entered the market that are worth talking about. Leading the way among that group was Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution. Anime has done very well recently, headlined by “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” opening to a record-breaking $70.6 million back in September. We also had “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” opening to $18 million in October. “Jujutsu Kaisen” is another popular anime that certainly has the potential to make noise, but “Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution” is a compilation film that previews the third season of the show rather than being its own standalone adventure. Thus it opening to $10.1 million from 1,833 theaters put in the exact realm of “Demon Slayer: To the Swordsmith Village” ($10.1 million March 2023) and “Demon Slayer: To the Hashira Training” ($11.5 million in February 2024), which were also compilation films rather than standalone movies like “Infinity Castle.”

And speaking of a compilation of sorts, Lionsgate finally released Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair into about 1,198 theaters this weekend. In the filmography of Quentin Tarantino, the man himself considers “Kill Bill: Volume 1” and “Kill Bill: Volume 2” as one movie, even though they were released separately in October 2003 and April 2004, respectively. A combined feature has been talked about for a long time, but finally came to fruition with “The Whole Bloody Affair,” which plays both movies back to back, along with an animated short created by Tarantino and Epic Games from the video game “Fortnite.” This was certainly a fun event for long-time Tarantino fans, but a total runtime of 4 hours 35 minutes is why it naturally had a limit for box office earnings, both in terms of having limited available screenings and causing more casual fans to shy away. That said, opening in 6th place with $3.4 million was an impressive result, all things considered.

Another theatrical event that hit theaters was Fathom Events and Sony Pictures Classics teaming up to release Merrily We Roll Along into just over 1,000 theaters, earning $1.3 million. This is the Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and the book by George Furth, which tells the story of three friends whose lives and friendships devolve over the years, but told in reverse chronology, so starting at the end with their lowest moment and ending at their youthful best. Production began on a movie adaptation of this by Richard Linklater back in 2019 with Paul Mescal, Ben Platt, and Beanie Feldstein, but this is apparently being done “Boyhood” style. In other words, Linklater is actually filming this over the course of 20 years. So check back around the year 2040 for when that comes out. We’ll see if I’m still doing these movie previews then. In the meantime, while the Broadway production original premiered in 1981, this release is the 2023 Broadway revival starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez. This is, of course, released “Hamilton” style, a recording of the Broadway show that is getting a theatrical release.

Nope. We’re not done yet. In addition to these theatrical events that came out, there were two other smaller movies. The first being Fackham Hall, which is described by distributor Bleeker Street as a spoof film that crosses “Downton Abbey” with “Airplane!” and “Monty Python.” The setting is 1930s England and the movie follows a pick-pocket Eric Noone who lands a job at a unique English manor house, rises through the ranks, has a forbidden romance with the lady of the house, then gets framed for a murder. Eric is played by Ben Radcliffe, with a supporting cast that includes Tom Felton, Thomasin McKenzie, Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston, Lizzie Hopley, Emma Laird, and Jimmy Carr, the latter of whom is part of the writing crew that includes him, Patrick Carr, and the British comedy trio The Dawson Brothers. The movie, directed by Jim O’Hanlon, debuted in more theaters than “Merrily We Roll Along,” with 1,112 theaters, but debuted outside the top 10 with just $620,909.

The second smaller film comes from IFC Entertainment Group, and that’s their latest film 100 Nights of Hero, which is a historical fantasy romance written and directed by Julia Jackman, based on the graphic novel “The One Hundred Nights of Hero,” which itself is based on the Middle Eastern folktale “One Thousand and One Nights.” The idea here follows a woman (Maika Monroe) whose neglectful husband (Amir El-Masry) leaves her alone for a hundred days to test her fidelity, and she then becomes entangled in a love triangle with her loyal maid (Emma Corrin) and her husband’s seductive friend (Nicholas Galitzine). The movie also stars Charli xcx, Richard E. Grant, and Felicity Jones in supporting roles. So yes, that’s a total of six new options in theaters this weekend. This one predictably came in the caboose as it was only released in 828 theaters. Even with that, though, it had a pretty bad per theater average and only ended up earning $250,701.

On top of all of that, I brought it up briefly last month, but Hamnet wound up opening in 119 theaters around Thanksgiving and expanded into 744 theaters this weekend. Despite being the lowest theater count of the movies I’ve mentioned in this section, it actually wound up in 8th place with $2.3 million, well ahead of the previous three. This definitely seems like an indication that the heavy awards buzz is catching people’s attention and translating into box office results. That also means this is likely to continue to expand, or at least hang around in theaters, over the next several months. Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22, with the Oscars themselves taking place on March 15. “Hamnet” is expected to be a huge contender in that. As a reminder, this is the Chloé Zhao directed film starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as William and Agnes Shakespeare, whose death of their child helped inspire the play Hamlet.

December 12 – 14

Universal's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)"

This second weekend of December is what could be referred to as the calm before the storm at the box office. There are three new releases that I’ll talk about, but they’re all of the smaller variety. The battle for No. 1 at the box office will likely come down to “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” vs. “Zootopia 2” once again. Despite “Freddy’s” winning by a score of $64.0 million to $43.4 million this past weekend, there’s a very strong chance that “Zootopia 2” actually takes back the lead. The first “Freddy’s” flick fell a massive 76 percent in weekend 2 and earned just $19 million after its $80 million debut. That was compounded by the fact that it was available day-and-date on Peacock, but it having close to zero appeal outside the core audience was the main reason, which has clearly remained the same with this sequel. Plus, horror sequels in general are often extremely frontloaded. If we assume a drop in the realm of 65-70 percent, that gives it a range of $19-22 million, with a similar 76 percent drop equaling $15 million. Meanwhile, “Zootopia 2” has followed in a similar trajectory as “Moana 2” last year. In its second and third weekends, “Moana 2” fell 63 percent and 48 percent, respectively. “Zootopia 2” held a little better in its second weekend with a 57 percent drop, so if we assume a 40-45 percent third weekend drop, that gives it a range of $24-26 million. So the race could be close, but the edge seems to be with “Zootopia 2.”

Before I get to the three smaller new releases, the biggest “new” release is actually a re-release of an older film as Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch and Taylor Momsen as Cindy Lou Who, returns to theaters. The movie earned $260 million domestically in its initial run in 2000, the highest grossing movie that year. It’s had a bit of a polarized reaction over the years and has an official rotten splatter on Rotten Tomatoes with 50 percent from critics, as well as a 59 percent score from audiences, but despite that has become a holiday staple for many. It shows up high on the streaming charts every holiday season and this time around is available on both Peacock and Amazon Prime. As far as its theatrical re-release, it’s poised to be released in about 1,600 theaters, but re-releases as a whole can be very unpredictable. “Coraline” earned $9.8 million in its first weekend of re-release last August, and wound up adding $33.6 million to the movie’s overall total over the next month, but then there’s other re-releases that have been completely ignored. “The Grinch” seems like a movie people will go out for, but many might simply choose to stream it at home instead.

Moving onto the actual new releases, I have no theater count estimates for these three, but I’m guessing they might be in the range of 800-1,200 theaters, give or take a bit, putting them in the realm of “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Fackham Hall,” and “100 Nights of Hero.” The leg up among these three seems like it will be Ella McCay, which comes to us via 20th Century Studios. The movie is directed by James L. Brooks, who is the co-creator of shows like “The Simpsons,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi,” as well as the director of movies such as “Terms of Endearment” (1983), “Broadcast News” (1987), and “As Good as It Gets” (1997). Despite the high prestige in both the film and TV realm, the last two movies he directed (“Spanglish” in 2004 and “How Do You Know” in 2010) weren’t particularly well received. And early word on “Ella McCay,” which was not released in any festivals or promoted as an awards contender, seems to be muted at best, as well. That said, the movie itself is about a character named Ella McCay, played by Emma Mackey, as she tries to juggle her family and work life, and is thus a comedy about the people you love and how to survive them. In addition to Mackey, the movie co-stars Woody Harrelson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rebecca Hall, Albert Brooks, and Jamie Lee Curtis in various supporting roles, so that cast and crew is likely good enough to convince some to show up, even if the movie does have the reviews or awards buzz it needs for it to become a true breakout.

From Roadside Attractions, our second smaller film is Dust Bunny, which appears to be a hybrid of action, horror, and thriller. The movie is about an 8-year-old girl, played by Sophie Sloan, who hires a hitman to help kill the monster under her bed after she’s convinced that it ate her whole family. The hired hitman is played by Mads Mikkelsen, while Sigourney Weaver also co-stars in the movie. In contrast to our previous movie, this one actually did get released in a film festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and carries with a strong, early critics score of 88 percent. This isn’t the type of movie to be an awards player, but the festival release and strong reviews is the correct formula for it to gain the proper amount of buzz heading into its release. Whether that translates into immediate box office success or simply results in positive word of mouth that helps it later on is a different story. Roadside Attractions has released 8 movies this year in at least 700 theaters. Only one of those had an opening weekend higher than $1 million and that was “The Home,” which opened to $1.04 million from 1,015 theaters. As a whole, those 8 movies have had an average opening weekend of $536,016 from an average of 863 theaters. That’s the range that “Dust Bunny” is looking at to start its run.

The final outing of the week is the Christmas slasher flick, Silent Night, Deadly Night. No, this is not a release of the original 1984 movie. This is the latest remake of that movie. And I say “latest” because this is the second time they’ve remade it, following the 2012 movie “Silent Night.” It’s also the seventh movie total in this franchise, as the original series of films had five movies, although only the first three have the original characters. The very first of these movies involved a character named Billy Chapman who, as a young boy, witnessed a violent crime committed by a man in a Santa suit, causing him to be deeply scarred and terrified of Christmas. When he’s older, he’s forced into dressing as Santa for his job, which causes his grip on reality to shatter, which then sends him on a violent killing spree where he feels the need to punish the “naughty.” The rest of the franchise then goes various directions with different interpretations of the “killer Santa” idea. Only the original has Billy Chapman as the main antagonist, which is what this new remake goes back to – Billy Chapman as killer Santa. The movie premiered at Fantastic Fest in September and will be distributed by Cineverse, who released “Terrifier 3” last year and this year’s remake of “The Toxic Avenger” back in August.

December 19 – 21

20th Century Studios' "Avatar: Fire and Ash"

The event film of the month, and possibly the year, gets released the weekend before Christmas and will have the entire holiday season and beyond to rack up all the money. That movie is, of course, Avatar: Fire and Ash. James Cameron has been doing almost nothing but work on Avatar films for the majority of the last 30 years. And yes, 30 years. He, of course, released a tiny film called “Titanic” in 1997, but development of “Avatar” began in 1994 and was initially planned on being released in 1999. That movie ended up coming out in 2009. Then it took another 13 years for “Avatar: The Way of Water” to come out, which was released in December 2022. With that timeline in mind, one might be surprised that “Fire and Ash” only took an additional three years to come out, but reports are that “The Way of Water” and “Fire and Ash” were shot simultaneously, along with parts of Avatar 4 to account for the aging of the child actors. That might account for at least part of the reason why it took 13 years to get the second movie out. They were, more or less, doing three movies at once, while Cameron also continued to work on scripts for all four sequels. Anyways, this fourth movie, as the title suggests, focuses on much of the fire elements of the Pandora world as Cameron has so far used each movie to explore one of the elements. Question is, is he going through traditional set of elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air), or, as some on the internet have suggested, is he using the Chinese Wuxing system (Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Metal)? The latter would certainly fit the currently planned five-movie arc, and the first movie would fit into either “Wood” or “Earth” with its heavy forestry imagery, but I guess we’ll see in 2029 when Avatar 4 comes out if it deals with “Air” or “Earth/Metal.”

Financially speaking, the first two Avatar movies both made over $2 billion worldwide, with the first currently at $2.9 billion, while “The Way of Water” hit $2.3 billion. Thus this third movie’s domestic release is probably slightly less significant given that these movies are massive worldwide hits. The initial run of “Avatar” in 2009 finished with $749 million domestically and has had a couple of re-releases to boost it to its current $785.2 million. Given how massive and culturally impactful the movie was, some prematurely celebrated the second movie’s “failure” when it *only* opened to $134.1 million. But then it held extremely well each week, similar to the first movie (which only opened to $77 million), finishing with $684.1 million domestically. The most recent long range forecast from Box Office Pro has “Fire and Ash” pegged in the $100-120 million for its opening, so a slight drop-off from “The Way of Water,” but not by much. The top domestic movie of the year so far is still “A Minecraft Movie” with $423.9 million. It would require quite the massive drop-off for “Fire and Ash” to not hit that mark. Worldwide is a different story as the Chinese movie “Ne Zha 2” made over $2 billion, the specifics depending on which site you look at, so “Fire and Ash” would likely have to match the second to get that mark as well, which is definitely doable, regardless of its domestic total.

While Avatar will be the biggest holiday movie outing, there are a few other options for the pre-Christmas weekend that should actually do decently well. The first of them is The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants. While the animated show continues to run – currently in the midst of of Season 16 after initially premiering in 1999 – this will be the fourth time the characters have graced the big screen, with the first time being way back in 2004. We then had “Sponge Out of Water” in 2015, followed by “Sponge on the Run” in 2020 during COVID. This SpongeBob adventure has our main character facing off against the ghost of the Flying Dutchman, voiced by Mark Hamill, down in the depths of the ocean, with many of the other characters going on a journey to rescue him. In regards to financial comparisons, the first movie opened to $32 million back in 2004, while “Sponge Out of Water” nearly doubled that with an opening of $55.4 million. “Sponge On the Run” isn’t a valid comparison due to COVID. And honestly, those first two are tricky comparisons as well, given the time gap. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, those numbers adjust to $58.3 million and $74.3 million for their openings, which seems way too high. Box Office Pro is projecting $25-35 million in their long range forecast, which does feel a bit more realistic.

Perhaps the most relevant to the Christmas season itself is Angel Studios releasing the animated movie David, which tells the story of the prophet David from the Bible, going from humble servant who killed Goliath to the king of the land as the movie appears to see how much of his story it can fit into one movie rather than focusing on one specific event, while adding musical numbers along the way. The trailer also mentions that this is “the legend you know, but the story you don’t,” which is a little odd considering his whole story is in the Bible, but perhaps there’s some creative liberties included in order to make for a more entertaining and surprising movie. Despite this being a second animated movie released this weekend, the target audiences here are slightly different, with SpongeBob aiming towards younger kids and fans of the show, while “David” aims to entertain Christian audiences. Both movies seem like they can easily co-exist throughout the holiday, even if SpongeBob opens higher. I’ve also talked many times on this monthly series about Angel Studios and how most of their releases consistently open in the $3-5 million range. However, this does seem like it has all the makings to be one of the exceptions to that. In which case, the easy comparison is “The King of Kings,” which opened to $19.4 million earlier this year around the Easter season. If it manages to beat that, it’ll win the prize of highest opening movie for Angel Studios, although it doesn’t seem likely to come close to their highest domestic total, which is still “Sound of Freedom” with $184.2 million.

From director Paul Feig, the final movie on this weekend’s list is the psychological thriller The Housemaid. Not to be confused with the 2010 South Korean film of the same name, which itself is a remake of a 1960 film, this new movie is an adaptation of a 2022 best-selling novel by Freida McFadden, not an American remake of a popular foreign film. Confusingly, both are about a maid joining a wealthy household with plenty of secrets, but the Korean film is more revolved around a dangerous affair that takes place, while this new book and movie is more revolved around the discovery of hidden abuse, manipulation, secrets, and a maid with a criminal past. That maid is played by Sydney Sweeney, who is thinks she has simply taken a job in an effort to get her life back together. Amanda Seyfried plays the wealthy wife who hires her. Director Paul Feig has had quite the varied career, mostly working in the comedy realm, but this one calls back to his 2018 thriller “A Simple Favor,” starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. That one opened to $16 million back in September 2018, which seems like a fair goal for this movie. Box Office Pro has it listed in the $25-35 million range as well, but that seems a bit optimistic. Sydney Sweeney is a popular name, but not a guaranteed box office draw as just last month her movie “Christy” bombed hard, earning only $1.3 million in its opening weekend in 2,011 theaters, so ultimately reviews and audience reaction will be key in determining if people are in the mood for a thriller during the holidays.

December 25 – 28

Sony's "Anaconda"

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year! This year, Christmas falls on a Thursday, which should align nicely with the box office weekend as all three new releases have chosen to open right on Christmas Day, which is often customary, regardless of what day of the week the holiday is on. People stay home with families on Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day is often a popular movie going day. This month, the big Christmas Day release involves Jack Black, Paul Rudd, and a giant snake with the remake of Anaconda. This is not the first time Jack Black has shown up during the holidays with a remake/reboot of a popular franchise. Both of the recent Jumanji movies were holiday releases and did very well. Sony, who is the distributor for both franchises, certainly would hope for a similar result. While a giant killer snake might seem like it’s better suited for a Halloween release than a Christmas one, the goal here seems to be aiming more for action comedy than campy horror, with the setup being a group of friends setting out to remake “Anaconda” only to run into a real giant snake that’s hunting them down. The goal here is a $30 million opening, which would actually be close to what “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” started at around Christmas 2017. That opened to just $36.2 million before going on to be the fourth highest grossing movie released in 2017, with $404.5 million total domestically. A reminder that December releases are historically a lot more backloaded, so if you catch on with good word of mouth, you can hold on and become a huge hit, even if the opening is seen as disappointing.

The next release goes into the world of ping pong with Josh Safdie’s new movie Marty Supreme. Josh and Benny Safdie, known professionally as the Safdie Brothers have worked together on movies such as “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems.” This year there was a bit of brotherly competition as the two temporarily split up to do their own films. Benny wrote and directed “The Smashing Machine,” starring Dwayne Johnson as UFC fighter Mark Kerry. That one had the initial heads up, hitting all the festivals and getting the October wide release, with plenty of awards buzz for both Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. However, momentum stalled out with mixed reviews from mainstream critics (as opposed to the festival audience) and a straight up bomb at the box office as general audiences weren’t interested. And now that opens the door for Josh Safdie to drive in and take the win over Benny. Early word on this one is that it has a much closer feel to a classic Safdie Brothers movie and thus has much stronger reviews, which seems to be pushing it towards heavier awards momentum. That’s positive in the niche awards realm, but will that translate to box office success? Timothée Chalamet is the star here as aspiring ping pong champion Marty Mauser, loosely inspired by American ping pong player Marty Reisman – making this officially a work of fiction rather than a sports biopic. And while Dwayne Johnson proved that star power doesn’t guarantee box office results, last Christmas Chalamet led “A Complete Unknown” to a domestic total of $75 million and 8 Oscar nominations after an opening weekend of $11.7 million. This year he hopes to win the Oscar for best actor, instead of just being the runner up, a goal that he’s clearly stated. He’s in good position, so we’ll see if this is his year.

The final movie on the docket for this post is NOT a Neil Diamond biopic, even though the initial trailer made me think it might be. The movie is Song Sung Blue, which is taken from a Neil Diamond song, but is in fact a biopic about Mike and Claire Sardina of the band Lightning & Thunder, a husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute band. The movie is actually based on the 2008 documentary of the same name that tells their story of soaring success and devastating heartbreak in their musical journey together. The movie stars Hugh Jackman as Mike and Kate Hudson as Claire. In the midst of me typing this, Hudson snagged a Golden Globe nomination, proving that’s hovering under the radar in the awards season, which could give it a boost. Although that being the only Globes nomination also shows that perhaps it isn’t a huge front-runner for awards. Early critical reaction has been a tad bit muted, but some critics mentioned that it has the potential to be a huge crowd pleaser. For those who want to listen to Hugh Jackman belting out “Sweet Caroline” or watch a tearjerking romance, this could easily work. I used the “A Complete Unknown” for a comparison to “Marty Supreme,” given the Chalamet connection, but that being a music biopic could also be a decent comparison here. Both seem like $10-15 million openers on Christmas weekend, with the potential to hold well depending on how the audiences react.