Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 17 December 2021 - 21 December 2021

Based on the crowd at the new Spider-movie and what I've been reading about advance ticket sales, this could have the sort of opening we haven't seen since 2019, which is a heck of a tug-of-war between "theaters are probably safer than we think" and "we're not sure how contagious Omicron is".

• As mentioned, the latest Marvel movie is Spider-Man: No Way Home, picking up from the end of Far From Home and having Spidey and Doctor Strange nearly break the multiverse trying to recreate his secret identity, bringing in a lot of guest stars. Fanservice-y as heck, but I get the feeling audiences might need that to get into theaters. Anyway, it's in a lot of them, playing the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/RealD 3D/Dolby Cinema), Fenway (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, South Bay (including Imax Xenon/RealD 3D/Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Xenon/RealD 3D/Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), the Embassy, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  There's another terrific cast in Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro's remake of the 1947 noir about a con artist who uses the techniques he learned as a sideshow mentalist to con the Manhattan elite. It's got Bradley Cooper, Toni Colette, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchet, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, and more, and plays the Coolidge, the Capitol, West Newton, Boston Common, Fenway, Kendall Square, South Bay, Assembly Row, and the Embassy.
  
  More big movies open later next week for the holidays, with American Underdog, based on Kurt Warner going from arena football to the NFL getting previews at Boston Common and Assembly Row Friday and Saturday.
• Landmark Theatre Kendall Square continues the Netflix premieres by picking up Maggie Gyllenhaal's first film as a director, The Lost Daughter, featuring Olivia Colman as a woman on vacation at a seaside resort pulled into her own past by encounters with other guests (Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris).
• Nightmare Alley is the main new release at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, but they do holiday counterprogramming with Black Christmas '74 at midnight Friday and Silent Night, Deadly Night at the same time Saturday, plus Die Hard Monday evening. There's also a more conventional kids' show of The Muppet Christmas Carol Saturday and Sunday mornings. They've got an encore 70mm screening of Inherent Vice Saturday afternoon (and Phantom Thread on Wednesday), and figure they might as well use the projector to show Vertigo Tuesday and Thursday nights while Boston Light and Sound has it set up for the big film.
• I was just pondering the other day that Chinese films had shifted from treasure-hunting to military adventure of late, but Schemes in Antiques is solidly in the former category, with Derek Kwok Chi-Kin directing an adventure about a team of experts trying to crack the mysteries around a Buddha head being returned from Japan. It's at Boston Common (albeit only at 2:15 and 9:30).
  
  Apple Fresh Pond opens Pushpa: The Rise Part 1, an action/adventure starring Allu Arjun as a truck driver who gets caught up in red sandalwood smuggling. Based on writer/director Sukumar's previous filmography, I think it's Telugu-language. Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui continues at Fresh Pond and Boston Common.
  
  Fresh Pond also has morning matinees of Mr. Birthday, a kids' movie about a mysterious group that helps kids having lousy birthdays. It's the sort of thing Eric Roberts does these days.
• The Capitol Theatre has a single screening of documentary 2020: The Dumpster Fire in their main auditorium Friday night.
• It's the weekend before Christmas, which means The Brattle Theatre has It's a Wonderful Life on 35mm film through Monday, with some shows already sold out. They also project 35mm film for most of the "Let's Hear It for 1984!" [late] shows, which feature Gremlins (Friday), Night of the Comet (Saturday), Purple Rain (Sunday/Monday via DCP), David Lynch's Dune (Tuesday), Old Enough (Wednesday via DCP), Repo Man (Thursday), and Streets of Fire (Thursday). The Weird Wednesday show is French oddity Dial Code Santa Claus
• The West Newton Cinema adds Spider-Man and Nightmare Alley to West Side Story, Encanto, House of Gucci, Belfast, and The French Dispatch. The Lexington Venue splits a screen between Julia and House of Gucci.
• Cinema Salem has Belfast , Dune, Spider-Man and Nightmare Alley through Monday (with open-caption shows for all but Belfast Monday afternoon). Friday's Night Light Screening is Xanadu, and there's a Sunday matinee of The Polar Express.
  
  The Luna Theater has C'mon C'mon on Friday, It's a Wonderful Life all day Saturday & Sunday (the first show on Saturday is a Masked Matinee), and a secret Weirdo Wednesdays show.
• For those still not ready to join random people in a room for two hours, theater rentals are available at Kendall Square, The Embassy, West Newton, the Capitol, The Venue, and many of the multiplexes.

Down for Nightmare Alley, Schemes in Antiques, and maybe The Lost Daughter; looks like some other things have already turned over too fast for me to catch up.