HBO Max, 3:00 a.m. ET
MOVIE PREMIERE: There’s not a lot of star power to this new Wonder Woman sequel, which premieres today in a few very selected theaters and on HBO Max. Aside from leading lady Gal Gadot and her male co-star Chris Pine, both of whom have attained stardom in genre blockbuster franchises (he as James Kirk in the Star Trek reboot), the biggest celebrity in this outing is former Saturday Night Live player Kristen Wiig, who plays the put-upon woman who eventually morphs into Wonder Woman’s latest adversary, The Cheetah. Also appearing as a villain this time around: former Game of Thrones player Pedro Pascal. But director Patty Jenkins, who directed the original Wonder Woman movie as well, is betting her pile of chips on Gadot and the franchise itself – and it’s a good bet. The popularity of this movie, even on this competitive opening day holiday, should drive millions of new subscribers to the streaming service, doing for HBO Max what Hamilton did earlier this year for Disney+.
Disney+, 3:00 a.m. ET
MOVIE PREMIERE: And speaking of Disney+, here’s that streaming service’s newest animated movie release from its Pixar arm. And like Wonder Woman 1984, it’s a film that once would have been a major holiday release in theaters – but now is coming to a living room very, very near you. And I suspect there’s no getting this particular toothpaste back into the tube. Home movie premieres are here to stay. And this premiere is about a musician who’s in danger of losing his passion for performing and for music. But it’s not a copy of La La Land, and involves more than one interpretation of the word “soul.” Voices are supplied by Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, and others.
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
It’s easy to forget that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. But it is – and, as such, this 1988 action movie is a wildly appropriate, as well as exciting, action movie to watch tonight. Especially on. HBO, without any edits or interruptions. Yippie-ki-yay…
TNT, 9:00 p.m. ET
On Christmas night? Sure. I do believe this is one movie you can’t see too many times – which means it’s one movie I can’t recommend too many times. So here I go again.
BBC America, 11:00 p.m. ET
This special new Christmas episode of The Graham Norton Show features George Clooney and Viola Davis, who are appearing via a safe distance and being piped in safely electronically. But so are their respective new movies: Clooney in The Midnight Sky and Davis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, both of which premiered within the past week on Netflix.