What do you want for Christmas? Movie-wise, it’s gotten to the point where a good story and maybe a star or two would do. With Hollywood feeling the financial pinch along with the rest of the country, the studios are more inclined than ever to go for the sure thing. In audience terms, that means teenage boys who tend to show up on opening weekend and see their favorite movies more than once. And in movie terms, teenage boys mean things that go BOOM.

Which is why other film fans are eternally grateful for the holiday season, when filmmakers bring out their Oscar hopefuls as well as family movies. Herewith is a partial list of what’s opening through Christmas Day — movies with promising pedigrees. Because if you’re going to take a break from shopping and cooking and entertaining and spending precious time with family and friends to see a movie, it had better do more than blow things up. Opening dates are subject to change.

Nov. 26

◗ “The Road”: John Hillcoat directs this adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cormac McCarthy novel, about a father and son (Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee) surviving in a post-apocalyptic world.

◗ “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”: George Clooney, Meryl Streep and other voices help Wes Anderson bring Roald Dahl’s tale to life, in old-fashioned stop-motion.

Dec. 4

◗ “Brothers”: When a Marine (Tobey Maguire) goes missing in Afghanistan, his ne’er-do-well brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) takes care of his wife and family, with cataclysmic results. A remake of a 2004 film by Susanne Bier.

◗ “Everybody’s Fine”: Widower Robert De Niro takes to the road to check in with his adult children, who aren’t doing as well as he’d thought.

◗ “Serious Moonlight”: Meg Ryan plays a high-powered Manhattan lawyer whose life takes a radical turn when her husband announces he’s leaving her for a younger woman.

Dec. 11

◗ “Invictus”: Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela in this true story of a rugby coach (Matt Damon) who helps forge a new sense of national identity during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Directed by Clint Eastwood.

◗ “Me and Orson Welles”: In 1937 a young, unproven director stages “Julius Caesar” in a revolutionary production at his new Mercury Theater. With Zac Efron and Claire Danes.

◗ “The Lovely Bones”: Peter Jackson adapts the Alice Sebold novel, about a murdered girl (Saoirse Ronan) who observes her family and killer from the afterlife.

◗ “The Princess and the Frog”: Disney’s first animated feature with an African-American princess/heroine (Anika Noni Rose), whose frog suitor needs a kiss to become human.

Dec. 18

◗ “Avatar”: James Cameron promises a new moviegoing experience that combines live action, CGI and 3-D. A wheelchair-bound veteran (Sam Worthington) travels to a distant moon to infiltrate a race of “avatars” and extract precious ore.

◗ “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”: A Manhattan couple with a troubled marriage (Sarah Jessica Parker, Hugh Grant) find a new bond after they witness a murder and are moved by the feds to Wyoming.

Dec. 25

◗ “It’s Complicated”: Meryl Streep plays a woman torn between her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) and a friend (Steve Martin) in this romantic comedy from Nancy Meyers.

◗ “Nine”: Daniel Day-Lewis plays a film director coming to terms with the women in his life, from his wife and lover to his longtime collaborator and mother. Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson also star in this adaptation of the Broadway show, which itself was an adaptation of the Federico Fellini film “8 1/2.”

◗ “Sherlock Holmes”: Literary detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his trusted friend Watson (Jude Law) solve yet another crime, which this time calls for as much muscle as mental capacity. Guy Ritchie directs.

◗ “A Single Man”: After the sudden death of his partner, an English professor (Colin Firth) tries to resume his life in Los Angeles. Fashion designer Tom Ford makes his filmmaking debut.

◗ “Up in the Air”: A corporate “road warrior” (George Clooney) tires of his life living on planes and in and out of suitcases, then finds himself unmoored when he’s downsized. Jason Reitman (“Juno”) directs.