Movies in theaters in December 2026: six studios’ dates, from The Debut to three Christmas Day openings

This guide is not a complete list of December’s releases. It covers only the seven films with December dates on the film pages of six studios and distributors: A24, Marvel Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Focus Features and NEON. Films from other studios are not in it; the end of this guide says which listings we could not use. On the pages it covers, nothing opens before Friday, December 11, and three films share Christmas Day, which falls on a Friday this year. Every date below comes from the studio’s own film page, and every rating from the film rating board’s search, both checked on November 11, 2026. “Not listed” means the board’s search showed no rating for the film that day.

December 11: The Debut

Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed The Debut and appears in it alongside Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti and Halle Bailey. A24’s synopsis follows Mona Friedman, a shy housewife who lands a small part at a community theater and turns into a method actor so devoted to it that she goes to war with the show’s overbearing director. The film is one of the 11 Best Feature nominees at the Gotham Awards, whose winners are named on November 30. Its R rating from the board is for language, some sexual references and brief drug use, and the board’s record lists No One Cares as an alternate title.

December 18: Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three

Marvel lists Avengers: Doomsday, directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, for December 18. Warner Bros. lists Dune: Part Three, which its official site calls the conclusion of Denis Villeneuve’s trilogy, for the same day, in theaters and IMAX across North America, with international dates from December 16. The board has rated Dune: Part Three PG-13 for strong violence and bloody images, some strong language and suggestive material. Our catch-up guide to both films covers what to watch first.

December 23: The Angry Birds Movie 3

Paramount’s animated sequel opens on the Wednesday before Christmas. In the studio’s one-line synopsis, an angry bird has to get through fatherhood while saving the world. John Rice directs, and the voice cast on the official site includes Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Rachel Bloom and Danny McBride, the four actors Sony’s page for The Angry Birds Movie 2 names as Red, Chuck, Silver and Bomb. The rating board’s records list the first two films, rated in 2016 and 2019, as Columbia Pictures releases, both PG for rude humor and action, so the third moves the series to a new studio.

December 25: three openings

Mr. Irrelevant is Paramount’s true story of John Tuggle, played by David Corenswet, who according to the studio was the last player chosen in the last round of the 1983 NFL draft, by the New York Giants. Michael Shannon plays his first-year head coach, Bill Parcells, and Isabel May is also in the cast. Jonathan Levine directs; the official site gives the full title as Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story.

Focus Features has Werwulf, the horror film Robert Eggers wrote with Sjón, on the same day, with Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp in the cast, and its page already offers 35mm tickets. The board’s R rating lists, among other reasons, strong bloody and disturbing violent content, gore and graphic nudity.

Artificial, from NEON, is directed by Luca Guadagnino. NEON describes it as the story of OpenAI and a two-decade race in artificial intelligence, and its cast includes Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro, Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Ike Barinholtz and Mark Rylance. It is rated PG-13 for some strong language.

What we could not pin down

Warner Bros.’ page for its animated The Cat in the Hat still says “Only in Theaters November 2026,” with no day, as it did when we built our November theaters guide. Sony’s film listing featured no December release when we checked, which does not rule one out; the only upcoming theatrical title it featured was Ghost Soldier, opening on November 11. Universal’s and Lionsgate’s film listings did not load as readable pages for us, so any December dates they have set are not in this guide.

The first dates of 2027 are already up, too: Paramount lists Children of Blood and Bone for January 15 and The Rescue for January 29, and A24 lists Slayground for January 29.