Only Hollywood could assemble a holiday guest list that ranges from Alvin and the Chipmunks to Margaret Thatcher and a steed in the trenches of World War I.
The latter are among a batch of potential Academy Awards contenders from past winners and nominees: Meryl Streep as former British Prime Minister Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; and Steven Spielberg directing "War Horse," the Tony Award-winning play that arrives in theaters just days after the U.S. debut of Spielberg's action tale "The Adventures of Tintin."
Other top holiday titles include Hollywood's take on Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," with Daniel Craig; Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" and Charlize Theron's romance "Young Adult."
Here are details on some of the highlights. Some of these films are scheduled for a limited release in the next week, with a wider release early next year.
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REAL LIVES
Streep could add to her Oscar record of 16 acting nominations as Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," a portrait of the conservative prime minister that co-stars Jim Broadbent.
Also on the London front is director Madonna's "W.E.," which blends the story of a modern woman (Abbie Cornish) in an unhappy marriage with the 1930s scandal over the abdication of King Edward so he could marry divorcée Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough).
"A Dangerous Method" follows the birth of psychoanalysis through the professional and personal clash of Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), and their relationships with a patient (Keira Knightley).
ACTION AND ADVENTURE
Director Spielberg teams with producer Peter Jackson for "The Adventures of Tintin," which opened overseas well ahead of this week's release in the United States, where the youthful adventurer is virtually unknown despite his global renown from the storybooks of Belgian writer Hergé.
The film sends eager reporter Tintin (Jamie Bell) on a treasure hunt with seafaring pal Capt. Haddock (Andy Serkis); the production was created through a performance-capture shoot layered over with digital animation.
James Bond star Craig stars with Rooney Mara in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," an English-language remake of the Danish film based on the Swedish best-seller about a troubled computer genius aiding a journalist investigating a decades-old crime. "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" has Cruise's elite team going rogue after an attack on the Kremlin. This opened exclusively at Imax and XD theaters last week and regular theaters Wednesday.
FAMILY MATTERS
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" features Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in the story of a boy searching New York City for the lock that fits a key left behind by his father, who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. This is scheduled to open in Tucson Jan. 20.
Roman Polanski's "Carnage" stars Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz in a drama about parents whose civility slips away as they meet to talk over a playground fight between their sons. It is based on Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play, "God of Carnage."
In "We Bought a Zoo," which opens Friday, Matt Damon plays a dad trying to hold his family together by doing just what the title says - moving with his kids to a run-down zoo that they begin to rebuild. Sounds sappy, concedes Damon, who interrupts himself when he describes the movie to point out that it's directed by Oscar winner Cameron Crowe ("Jerry Maguire," "Almost Famous").
WAR STORIES
Angelina Jolie makes her directing debut with "In the Land of Blood and Honey," a romance set against the turmoil of the war in Bosnia during the 1990s.
Set amid the Cold War in 1973, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" stars Gary Oldman as author John le Carre's unassuming spymaster George Smiley, brought out of retirement to finger a Russian mole in British intelligence circles. It is set to open in Tucson on Jan. 6.
Ralph Fiennes gives Shakespeare an update, directing and starring in "Coriolanus," with the action moved to modern times as an exiled Roman general enlists a former rival (Gerard Butler) and lays siege to his old city.
Based on the book that inspired the Broadway play, Spielberg's "War Horse" chronicles the horrors of World War I through the eyes of an English farm horse that is sold to the army and later captured and pressed into service by the Germans.
Spielberg saw the play in London, a production using elaborate life-sized puppets as horses. Dazzling as the puppets were, Spielberg said it's the core of the horse's journey that really resonates.
"I walked out of that marvelous experience with a deep desire to make the movie," Spielberg said. "The reason it endures with audiences and it really touches the heart is because of the story." It opens Sunday.
ROMANCE AND LAUGHTER
Charlize Theron is a wannabe home wrecker in "Young Adult," playing a writer who returns to her hometown and sets about reclaiming her high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson) from his wife. It opened last week.
One of the season's most-unusual releases is a throwback to old, old Hollywood. "The Artist" follows the downfall of a movie star (Jean Dujardin) and the rise of a starlet (Berenice Bejo) as silent film gives way to sound pictures - and it's told as a black-and-white silent film.
The movie has charmed audiences at film festivals, winning Dujardin the best-actor prize at Cannes. But can a quaint throwback to the silent era click with today's paying crowds?
"The most difficult thing to do is to actually manage to drag these people into the room," Dujardin said. "But once they're in the room, there's no problem. I'm kind of convinced that they will stay."
