Production notes

The film's script was originally developed during the late 1990s by the Jim Henson Company, partially inspired by the success of the 1995 film Babe. In September 2014, it was reported that DeVon Franklin would produce a faith-based film inspired by the Nativity story under his production company, Franklin Entertainment, in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation. In April 2015, Variety reported that Timothy Reckart would direct the film in his directing debut. On August 5, 2015, it was announced that the film, then titled The Lamb, was given an official release date of December 8, 2017. On June 20, 2016, it was announced that Brian Henson and Lisa Henson from The Jim Henson Company would be executive producers for the film, now titled The Star, making it the first Henson-produced film for Sony since The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland in 1999. In an interview with Animation Magazine, Reckart expressed that he felt encouraged to direct the film, as he felt that there was a lack of Christmas films centering on the Nativity of Jesus: "It felt like an opportunity to be part of a movie that has not been done before, that's really going to fill a void." The animation was produced by Cinesite Studios. Animation work began in January 2017.

On January 5, 2017, it was reported that Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry would be in the film. The rest of the cast was announced on January 19, 2017.

The Star (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released on October 27, 2017, including contributions from Jessie James Decker, Jake Owen, Kelsea Ballerini, Zara Larsson, Casting Crowns, Kirk Franklin, Fifth Harmony, Yolanda Adams, Saving Forever and Mariah Carey. Pentatonix also contributes a bonus track to the digital release of the album. The main single The Star, interpreted by Mariah Carey ranked at No. 6 on the Billboard US Holiday Digital Song Sales in 2017. The song was nominated for the Best Original Song at the 75th Golden Globe Awards.

The Star has grossed $40.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $22.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $63.6 million, against a production budget of $20 million. In the United States and Canada, The Star was released alongside Justice League, Wonder and Roman J. Israel, Esq. and was projected to gross around $10 million from 2,800 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.8 million on its first day. It ended up grossing $9.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing 6th at the box office.

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an average rating by critics of 46% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 5.0/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Star may not leave audiences singing 'Hallelujah', but its offbeat yet sincere approach to the nativity story makes for acceptably diverting holiday viewing." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. The A.V. Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky criticized The Star as a "rote cartoon feature" existing for purely commercial reasons: "...even the kid-friendliest, Sunday-school-iest kind of religious art can't spring from religion alone; it needs artistry, too. Otherwise, you end up with a generic product aimed at a market segment who'll buy anything as long as it seems sufficiently churchy."