The Holiday Heads Back to Cinemas for Its 20th Birthday
The Holiday is returning to cinemas on 11 December 2026, twenty years after its first release, Variety reported on 21 October.
The romantic comedy was written and directed by Nancy Meyers. It stars Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black. Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures produced it, in association with Relativity Media and Waverly Films Production.
The story begins with two women whose love lives have gone wrong. Iris, played by Winslet, is in love with a man who is about to marry someone else. Amanda, played by Diaz, discovers that her partner has been unfaithful. They swap homes through a home exchange website. Iris moves into Amanda's house in Los Angeles, and Amanda travels to Iris's village in the English countryside. There they meet Graham (Law) and Miles (Black), and a screenwriter named Arthur, played by Eli Wallach, helps give them a push.
When the film first came out, it took in more than $200 million worldwide at the box office, according to Variety.
The anniversary release is already on the schedule. AMC Theatres lists The Holiday - 20th Anniversary for 11 December, rated PG-13 and running 2 hours 16 minutes. Separately, the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood is staging a 20th anniversary presentation, The Holiday in Concert, on 27 November.
Television is also involved. An Apple TV limited series inspired by the film is in development. It follows different characters: two women, one British and one American, who swap houses during Christmas and find love.
The return fits a pattern that trade publication The Hollywood Reporter described in a December 2023 report. It said studios had moved many Christmas romances away from cinemas and toward streaming, pointing to titles such as Candy Cane Lane. A December cinema run for a film from 2006 offers a different route, one that puts a two-decade-old holiday story back on big screens for audiences who may have seen it at home.
