The Cat in the Hat and Godzilla Open the Same Day. Trackers Cannot Pick a Winner. Here Is November 2026 in Theaters.

November opens with the strangest matchup of the fall. On Friday, November 6, Warner Bros. releases The Cat in the Hat, an animated Dr. Seuss movie it moved out of February for a longer holiday run, on the same day as Godzilla Minus Zero, the R-rated sequel to the Japanese monster movie that won the Oscar for visual effects in 2024.

Then come Johnny Depp as Scrooge, a young Haymitch Abernathy in the arena, a Disney witch movie, a fourth Meet the Parents, and a Brad Pitt sequel you can only see in IMAX. Here it is, week by week.

November 6: a cat, a monster, and a coin flip

The trackers cannot separate them. Box Office Theory's tracking as of October 22 puts both at $25 million to $35 million for the weekend, with its point forecast giving Godzilla the edge, $29 million to $26 million. Boxoffice Pro's latest calendar has the Cat at $30 million to $40 million, down from $40 million to $50 million on October 9, and Godzilla at $25 million to $35 million.

Even the low end would be a leap for Godzilla. Minus One opened to $11.4 million domestically in December 2023 and finished at $57.1 million. Takashi Yamazaki's sequel picks up in 1949, two years later, with Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe back, and it sits at 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 46 reviews. Here is what critics say about Minus Zero, and where Minus One lands in our Godzilla movies ranked list.

Bill Hader voices the Cat, here an agent of chaos sent to cheer up two siblings after a move to a new town, with Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang, and Matt Berry as a fish named Waffles. For scale, Mike Myers' live-action Cat in the Hat opened to $38.3 million in 2003, and Illumination's The Grinch opened to $67.6 million in 2018.

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Also opening November 6, in limited release

• Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight): Martin McDonagh sends John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell to Easter Island as CIA agents just before the 1973 Chilean coup. It split the room at Venice and now sits at 93 percent from 95 reviews.
• Club Kid (A24): Jordan Firstman directs and stars as a New York club promoter who meets the 10-year-old son he never knew he had. 100 percent from 65 reviews.
• I Play Rocky (Amazon MGM): Peter Farrelly on how an unknown Sylvester Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) refused to let anyone else play Rocky Balboa. 85 percent from 47 reviews, expanding later in the month. Rank the real thing in our Rocky movies ranked list.

November 11 to 13: Scrooge, a heist crew, and two Cannes films

On Wednesday, November 11, David O. Russell's Madden, with Nicolas Cage as John Madden and Christian Bale as Al Davis, opens in select theaters a week before it reaches Prime Video on November 18.

Friday belongs to Ebenezer. Ti West (X, Pearl, MaXXXine) directs Johnny Depp as Scrooge, with Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley, Andrea Riseborough and Tramell Tillman as the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, and Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit. It is rated PG-13, and the two trackers have it opening between $15 million and $30 million.

How to Rob a Bank is the R-rated alternative: David Leitch (Bullet Train, The Fall Guy) directs Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz, Pete Davidson, and John C. Reilly in a story about bank robbers who broadcast their heists on social media and get famous enough to draw the FBI.

The best reviews that day belong to two Cannes competition films in limited release. Neon opens James Gray's Paper Tiger, with Miles Teller and Adam Driver as brothers in over their heads with the Russian mob and Scarlett Johansson as Teller's wife (86 percent from 80 reviews). Sony Pictures Classics opens Pedro Almodóvar's Bitter Christmas in New York and Los Angeles (87 percent from 75 reviews).

November 20: Haymitch gets his Games

The month's biggest opening belongs to The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Francis Lawrence directs his fifth film in the series, adapting Suzanne Collins' 2025 novel about the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell, 24 years before Katniss. Joseph Zada plays the young Haymitch, with Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, and Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket.

The forecasts disagree on how big. Boxoffice Pro's October 23 long-range forecast says $55 million to $65 million, and Box Office Theory's tracking runs $65 million to $84 million. Either beats the $44.6 million opening of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in 2023. Neither gets near the Katniss years: the first four films opened between $102.7 million (Mockingjay - Part 2) and $158.1 million (Catching Fire). See where all five land in our Hunger Games movies ranked list.

The same day, Paper Tiger goes nationwide and Simon Stone's Elsinore opens, with Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson, the Chariots of Fire actor who played Hamlet at the National Theatre while dying of AIDS (87 percent from 55 reviews).

Thanksgiving: four openings, and one plays only in IMAX

Wednesday, November 25, is the busiest day of the month. Disney Animation's Hexed stars Hailee Steinfeld as Billie, a teenager whose hidden powers pull her into a witch realm called Hexe alongside her cautious mother (Rashida Jones). Boxoffice Pro has it opening at $35 million to $45 million over the three-day weekend. Our Disney movies ranked list shows the bar it is up against.

Focker-in-Law brings back Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, and Owen Wilson 16 years after Little Fockers, and this time Greg and Pam's son Henry (Skyler Gisondo) is the one getting married, with Ariana Grande joining the cast. The series peaked with a $46.1 million opening for Meet the Fockers in 2004. Angel Studios opens Hershey the same day, with Finn Wittrock as Milton Hershey, and Bitter Christmas expands.

The movie fans will argue about most is the one most theaters will not have. The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth brings Brad Pitt back to the stuntman he won an Oscar for in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, eight years later and working as a studio fixer. Quentin Tarantino wrote it and David Fincher directed it for Netflix, which gives it a two-week IMAX run from November 25, the slot Greta Gerwig's Narnia gave up when it moved to February 12, 2027. It reaches Netflix on December 23. Our Tarantino movies ranked list explains why it does not count as his tenth film.

How to plan the month

If you make three trips, plan them by weekend: Godzilla Minus Zero on November 6 (it was filmed for IMAX, so see it big), Sunrise on the Reaping on November 20, and Cliff Booth over Thanksgiving while the IMAX run lasts. The safest bets on reviews are the smaller films: Club Kid, Wild Horse Nine, Bitter Christmas, and Paper Tiger are all at 86 percent or higher.

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