The Hollywood animated movies Moana and Sing and the Australian drama Red Dog: True Blue are all expected to perform solidly when they open on Boxing Day - the biggest movie-going day of the year in this country.

But there will be nothing like the flourish that came when Star Wars: The Force Awakens took $93.8 million when it ran from before Christmas last year to late March this year. It ended up second to Avatar's $115.6 million at the all-time box office.

With the top standard price now $21, more than $40 million worth of cinema tickets are expected to be sold over the next six days.

The managing director of Universal Pictures Australasia, Mike Baard​, believes the year's box office is likely to finish close to last year's record $1.22 billion.

By last weekend, it was 4 per cent ahead of 2015 with $1.18 billion.

While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had a highly successful opening week in Australia, taking $20.3 million, that was still barely half the ticket sales of The Force Awakens in the same period.

"Four per cent will probably come back down to one per cent," Mr Baard said. "Each day to New Year's Eve last year had The Force Awakens pumping out massive daily numbers."

The general manager for film and content at Event Cinemas, Peter Cody, expects the Star Wars spin-off to be the top movie on Boxing Day.

"If it does $50 million, which it's tracking towards, we'll be delighted," he said. "But what we've got this year, on top of Rogue One, is a really strong supporting line-up."

Based on preview screenings, Mr Cody said there were high expectations for Disney's Moana and Illumination's Sing. But whether either reaches the heights of Frozen's $35.2 million three years ago is another matter.

"Frozen was a phenomenon," he said. "Like Finding Nemo, it just hit a chord.

"Moana is a really good animated film that probably won't do Frozen numbers but my gut feel is it's not going to be a long way short."

Mr Cody believes the prequel Red Dog: True Blue will be popular based on goodwill from the original hit Red Dog in 2011.

"It's the same DNA and hopefully it's got all those elements that were so appealing in the first film," he said.

While industry expectations are modest for the less-than-sparkling romantic dramas Allied and A United Kingdom, Mr Cody sees potential in the Ryan Gosling-Emma Stone musical La La Land given the widespread critical acclaim.

For the rest of the summer holidays, cinema executives see good business for the Jennifer Lawrence-Chris Pratt sci-fi movie Passengers (out January 1) and the Australian drama Lion (out January 19).

"Lion is a real crowdpleaser," Mr Baard said.

With continued questions about the lack of diversity in Hollywood movies this year, it's possible that 2016 could end with two movies topping the week's box office that both centre on female characters - Felicity Jones' Jyn Erso​ in Rogue One and the title character in Moana voiced by teenage newcomer Auli'i Cravalho​ - and feature racially diverse casts.

The chief executive of Palace Cinemas, Benjamin Zeccola​, believes La La Land and the French comic drama Rosalie Blum will be strong performers in art-house cinemas.

But reflecting one major industry shift since digital projection took over from 35mm prints, specialised cinemas will also do well with the mainstream movies they screen including Rogue One and Allied.

Over the rest of the holidays, Mr Zeccola expects the Jackie Kennedy bio-pic Jackie (out January 12) and Lion will be hits.

"Lion is one of hte most powerful and poignant films I've seen in a long time," he said. "I had tears streaming down my cheeks."

While it seems logical that the growth of streaming services has cut into cinema-going this year, Mr Zeccola said the Palace chain had experienced buoyant trading helped by refurbishing cinemas and, in the case of the Palace Balwyn in Melbourne and the Palace Centro in Brisbane, new screens.

THE BOXING DAY LINE-UP

FOR FAMILIES AND KIDS

Red Dog: True Blue

Director: Kriv Stenders​

Stars: Levi Miller, Jason Isaacs, Bryan Brown

Buzz: Warm-hearted prequel about Red Dog's early life.

Moana

Directors: Ron Clements and John Musker​

Stars: Voices by Auli'i Cravalho​, Dwayne Johnson

Buzz: Disney animation about a spirited teenager who sets out to lift a curse on her Pacific Island.

Sing

Director: Garth Jennings

Stars: Voices by Matthew McConaughey​, Reese Witherspoon​, Scarlett Johansson​

Buzz: Animation about a koala who runs an amateur singing competition to save his theatre.

Doctor Who: The Return Of Doctor Mysterio

Director: Ed Bazalgette​

Stars: Peter Capaldi​, Matt Lucas

Buzz: The Time Lord has to save New York from an alien threat in a 60-minute Christmas special.

FOR COMEDY FANS

Why Him?

Director: John Hamburg

Stars: Bryan Cranston​, James Franco, Zoey Deutch

Buzz: Raunchy MA-rated comedy about a protective father facing up to his daughter's obnoxious billionaire boyfriend.

FOR ADULT AUDIENCES

La La Land

Director: Damien Chazelle​

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone

Buzz: Charming modern-day musical set in Los Angeles.

Allied

Director: Robert Zemeckis​

Stars: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard​

Buzz: Romantic spy thriller set during World War II.

A United Kingdom

Director: Amma Asante​

Stars: David Oyelowo​ , Rosamund Pike

Buzz: Real-life romance about an African prince's controversial marriage to an English woman.

FOR FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM-GOERS

Rosalie Blum

Director: Julien Rappeneau​

Stars: Noemie Lvovsky, Kyan Khojandi​

Buzz: Quirky French comic drama.about a shy hairdresser who becomes obsessed with a shopkeeper.

FOR MUSIC FANS

On one cinema in Sydney and two in Melbourne are the music documentaries Gimme Shelter, about the Stooges, and Janis: Little Girl Blue, about Janis Joplin.