Looking to add some new movies to your HBO Max watchlist? Look no further: I've gone through the entire list of everything new to Max in December 2025 and picked out the best new arrivals and upcoming watches that are available on the streaming service this month.
Like all the best streaming services, HBO Max gets a bunch of new movies every single month, so sifting through what's available can be a bit of a chore. However, only a handful manage to earn a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While a high rating on RT can't guarantee you'll love a movie if you personally sit down to stream it, it at the very least indicates that critics generally agree a movie is worth giving a chance.
This month's acclaimed round-up includes a mixture of movies from across the decades, such as a holiday romance from 1940, a laugh-out-loud comedy, and some more modern releases, too. Below, you can find the five new to HBO Max movies with 90% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes you should stream in December 2025.
'Hidden Figures' (2016)
Theodore Melfi's Best Picture-nominated historical drama follows three African-American women — Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) — mathematicians at NASA who (per the NASA website) were "essential to the success of early spaceflight."
Simply put, "Hidden Figures" is a well-told space race-era watch that thrives thanks to the trio of excellent performances at its core, and that honors the real-life heroines whose story it tells, in crowd-pleasing, engaging fashion.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Stream "Hidden Figures" on HBO Max now
'Ne Zha II' (2025)
Later this month, HBO Max is due to add "Ne Zha 2," an animated sequel from China you may not have encountered, even though it's both the highest-grossing animated film of all time and comfortably the biggest movie of 2025, so far (it took over $1.9 billion at the box office).
Written and directed by Jiaozi, "Ne Zha 2" follows the titular rebellious young boy born with wild, uncontrolled powers, who faces an ancient force that's bent on destroying humanity.
A24 picked up the English dub and released it in US theaters over the summer, but now this box-office sensation has a chance to find an even wider U.S. audience than it had before. If you're curious about the blockbuster, HBO Max is the place to be this month, as the first "Ne Zha" movie came to the streamer at the start of December, too.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Stream "Ne Zha 2" on HBO Max from Dec. 20
'The Shop Around the Corner' (1940)
"It's A Wonderful Life" might be the classic Christmas movie, but if you'd like to shake up your viewing a little and swap George Bailey's perennial story for another watch, HBO Max has added Ernst Lubitsch's "The Shop Around the Corner."
This 1940 romantic comedy/drama revolves around Alfred (James Stewart) and Klara (Margaret Sullavan), colleagues who work at a leather goods store in Budapest, Hungary. Alfred and Klara do not get along, but little do they know that they're kindred spirits. See, Alfred and Klara actually get along rather well, in secret: They became one another's pen pal thanks to a personal ad and have unwittingly fallen in love, one letter at a time.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 99%
Stream "The Shop Around the Corner" on HBO Max now
'This is Spinal Tap' (1984)
Looking for laughs this month? Get ready to turn things up to 11 in that case, as beloved comedy classic "This is Spinal Tap" (and the recently released sequel, "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues") are coming to HBO Max in just a couple of days.
For this list, though, we're talking about the titular band's original outing (the legacy sequel didn't strike nearly as strong a chord with critics). "This Is Spinal Tap" sees filmmaker Marty Di Bergi (played by director Rob Reiner) following Spinal Tap on a tour of America, capturing all the ups and downs from their time on tour, to hilarious effect.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 98%
Stream "This is Spinal Tap" on HBO Max from Dec. 12
'Wolf Children' (2012)
Anime fans may want to check out Mamoru Hosada's ("Belle," "Mirai," "Summer Wars") fantasy feature, "Wolf Children," this month, which came to HBO Max at the start of the month.
It revolves around Hana, a woman who falls in love with a wolf-man. After his untimely death, Hana struggles to raise her two werewolf children alone. To do so, she moves out of the city to a tumbledown home out in the Japanese countryside. "Wolf Children" is beautifully animated and comes highly recommended by critics; it's lauded as "a beautifully complex exploration of the joys and trials of parenthood" on RT.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
Stream "Wolf Children" on HBO Max now
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