Stream It All: Every Movie Hitting HBO Max in December 2025

HBO Max is closing out 2025 like it knows you plan to do absolutely nothing in December except eat leftovers and watch stuff. The lineup is huge, weird in a fun way, and stacked with movies, docs, big sequels, and a whole run of anime gems. If you ever complain about not knowing what to watch, December kind of takes that excuse away.

The headline move: Ne Zha II lands right before Christmas

The big swing arrives Dec 24, when Ne Zha II hits the service. It is the Chinese blockbuster that has been touted as the highest-grossing animated movie ever. Smartly, the first Ne Zha shows up Dec 1, so you can actually watch the setup before the sequel drops. Holiday counter-programming that is not another Santa thing? Thank you.

Music docs and concerts, plural

If you are into music history and performance docs, this month quietly turns into a mini festival: an HBO Original on Jeff Buckley (Dec 4), a Wizkid special (Dec 11), and an HBO Original Counting Crows doc (Dec 18). There is also a Paul Anka HBO Original tucked into Dec 1. That is a pretty wide spread of eras and vibes, and yes, it is a little surprising to see them all lined up like this.

Comedy comfort food, loud and otherwise

Wedding Crashers, Miss Congeniality and its sequel, Girls Trip, and Table 19 all pile in on Dec 1. Then on Dec 12, the OG mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap returns the same day as the new sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Subtle? No. Effective? Absolutely.

A serious anime wave on day one

Dec 1 drops a legitimately great spread of animated imports: Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Liz and the Blue Bird, Lu Over the Wall, Mind Game, and Shin Godzilla (via GKIDS). That is a lot of animation cred firing at once, and a few of those are stone-cold essentials if you missed them in theaters.

Holiday odds and ends (and a Batman curveball)

You still get seasonal fare like Adult Swim Yule Log and its sequel on Dec 1, a new OWN holiday title The Christmas Showdown (Dec 7), and Very Merry Mystery (Dec 14). Then two days before Ne Zha II, we get Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires on Dec 22, which is exactly the kind of unexpected December drop that makes me double-take in the best way.

The full December schedule

• Dec 1: Adult Swim Yule Log; Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin' Out; Atomic Blonde; Battle of the Sexes; Bright Leaf; Christmas with the Kranks; Dames; Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days; Girls Trip; Gunsmoke in Tucson; Hidden Figures; I'll See You in My Dreams (1952); Illegal; Jim Thorpe: All-American; Jimmy the Gent; Key Largo; Kid Galahad; Larceny Inc.; Law of the Badlands; Little Caesar; Liz and the Blue Bird; Lu Over the Wall; Mandalay; Millennium Actress; Mind Game; Miss Congeniality; Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous; Mission to Moscow; My Dream is Yours; Ne Zha; Night and Day; Paul Anka: His Way (HBO Original); Perfect Blue; Pierrot le fou; Racket Busters; Riffraff; Romance on the High Seas; Santa Fe Trail; Shin Godzilla (GKIDS); Shining Victory; Shoeshine; Sing and Like It; Song of My City; Summer Wars; Table 19; Taking Woodstock; The Color Purple (1985); The Colors Within; The Damned Don't Cry; The Girl Who Leapt Through Time; The Goonies; The Matrimonial Bed; The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex; The Sea Wolf (1941); The Seventh Victim; The Shop Around the Corner; They Won't Believe Me; Tiny Furniture; Trouble Along the Way; Walk Softly, Stranger; Walk the Dark Street; Wedding Crashers; Wilson; Wolf Children; X-Men First Class
• Dec 4: Architecton; It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley (HBO Original)
• Dec 5: The Family McMullen (2025)
• Dec 7: The Christmas Showdown (OWN)
• Dec 11: Wizkid: Long Live Lagos (HBO Original)
• Dec 12: Spinal Tap II: The End Continues; This Is Spinal Tap
• Dec 14: Very Merry Mystery
• Dec 16: The Secrets We Bury (ID)
• Dec 18: Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately? (HBO Original)
• Dec 22: Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires
• Dec 24: Ne Zha II (A24)
• Dec 25: Happy And You Know It (HBO Original)

Short version: HBO Max wants you parked on the couch all month, and honestly, fair. What are you lining up first?