The Cat in the Hat: Release Date, Cast, Trailer — Critics Split at Metacritic 47 as Warner Bros. Bets on a $25–35 Million Opening

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's first feature opens Friday to mixed early reviews and a $25–35 million projection.

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's The Cat in the Hat opens in North American theaters and IMAX on Friday, November 6, with international release beginning November 4. Early reviews are split: Metacritic stood at 47 out of 100 on 11 critics as of November 5, the "mixed or average" band, and Rotten Tomatoes had not yet posted a Tomatometer score.

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The spread of those first reviews is wide. The Film Verdict scored it 75 and called it a film that "captures the anarchic yet warm-hearted spirit of the original Dr. Seuss story," and IGN gave it 70, calling it a "genuinely funny and likable expansion" of the character while noting it "runs longer than it needs to." At the other end, Variety (40) described it as delivering in a "hectic, bumptious, overcrowded and underfelt way," and the Associated Press (38) wrote that it "doesn't need a sequel, please."

Release date, cast and runtime

Bill Hader voices the Cat, with Xochitl Gomez as Gabby and Tiago Martinez as Sebastian, the two children he pulls into his plans. The supporting voice cast includes Matt Berry as Waffles the fish, Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Paula Pell and Tituss Burgess. Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni directed and co-wrote the screenplay, Daniela Mazzucato and Jared Stern produced, Lorne Balfe composed the score, and DNEG handled the animation. The runtime is 107 minutes, and the feature is paired in theaters with the Looney Tunes short Daffy Season.

What the story is about

Rather than retell the 1957 picture book, the film invents a new framework: the Cat works for an otherworldly entertainment company and is handed a last chance to keep his job. When a family's move to a new town goes wrong, he is pulled into a mission to recover a time-reversing stopwatch, in a world assembled from the children's memories. In the trailer, the Cat laments that "kids are hard to impress these days." The title is the studio's first full-length Warner Bros. Pictures Animation feature, and it was shown at CinemaCon in April alongside the studio's other upcoming animated titles.

Box office outlook

Box Office Theory projects an opening weekend of $25 million to $35 million, according to a preview by /Film published October 29. The low end sits near the $27 million opening of GOAT, and the high end near the $35 million debut of The Wild Robot. No official budget has been disclosed; /Film estimates $70 million to $90 million based on the studio's animation history. There is no other family animation in wide release until Disney's Hexed arrives over Thanksgiving, which leaves the Cat a clear run, even as the early reviews cap how far word of mouth can carry it.

The film also arrives after a difficult year for its studio. /Film counts The Bride!, Supergirl, The End of Oak Street and Digger among Warner Bros.' 2026 disappointments, and frames the Cat as a chance to rebound after Clayface opened at No. 1. Our own coverage of that film is in the Clayface review, and the full slate of what else is landing this month is in our guide to new movies coming out in November 2026.

Where to watch: in theaters only on opening weekend. We will update this page with the opening-weekend gross and the Rotten Tomatoes score once more reviews are in.

Original coverage: The Cat in the Hat opens November 6 to mixed reviews