Every year, a ton of big-name movies [1] come out right around Christmas, and this year is no exception. If you're heading the movies on Christmas Day 2019, you'll have a fairly wide selection, from new instalments in mega-blockbuster franchises [2] to family-friendly animated movies [3] to quieter, more serious dramas aiming at the season's biggest awards. While there are only a couple of movies that are official Christmas Day releases, there are several released in earlier weeks that will probably still be showing when the holiday rolls around [4]. If your Christmas traditions involve heading to the multiplex, keep reading for a handy overview of all the options you'll have this holiday season.
Frozen 2
The follow-up to the smash hit 2013 film looks like a more eerie and intense adventure. Anna and Elsa, along with their friends, confront a mysterious power [5] on the outskirts of Arendelle.
The Aeronauts
The Theory of Everything costars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones reunite in this historical drama about a real-life scientist and pilot who break the altitude record in a balloon while attempting to make scientific measurements in a dangerous part of the atmosphere.
Black Christmas
The slasher film is the second remake of a 1970s Canadian horror flick by the same name. In this version, when sorority girls begin getting picked off by a killer, they rally together to fight back.
Jumanji: The Next Level
It's the fourth Jumanji film and the second one in the modern-day reboot continuity. When young Spencer secretly repairs the game and gets pulled in, the team reunites to re-enter the game and save him.
Bombshell
Based on the real-life scandal at Fox News, Bombshell follows a group of high-profile women who decide to speak up about their harassment at the hands of media mogul Roger Ailes.
Cats
The adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical features a laundry list of Hollywood names and some slightly meme-tastic [6] CGI/human hybrid imagery. Is there a plot [7]? Yes. Does it matter? Not much.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
The biggest movie event of the year debuts just a few days before Christmas. With the Resistance in tatters, Rey, Finn, and Poe are set for a final showdown for the soul of the galaxy against Kylo Ren and his First Order in the final film in the Skywalker saga. [8]
1917
Director Sam Mendes based this film off of a story his grandfather, a World War I soldier, told him. At the height of the war, two young British soldiers are tasked with getting vital intelligence through enemy territory and to their compatriots in time to avoid walking into a deadly ambush.
Little Women
Greta Gerwig's adaptation of the classic novel features a star-studded cast including Emma Watson [9], Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet [10], Meryl Streep [11], and more. In post-Civil War New England, four very different sisters [12] strive for happiness in their own ways.
Spies in Disguise
The animated spy comedy focuses on a superspy who accidentally ingests his tech-sidekick's experiment and gets turned into a bird, leaving him to try to save the world while in animal form.