Movies Coming Out in November 2026: Which Are Worth a Theater Ticket and Which Should You Wait For? My Ranking of 7 Releases, and the One I’d Rush to See on the Biggest Screen

November is the month when the movie calendar quietly stops being a calendar and turns into a budget. Seven films are fighting for your Friday nights between now and Thanksgiving weekend, three of them open on the very same Wednesday, and nobody is going to see all of them in a theater. So I did what I’d do for a friend who texts me “okay, which one should I actually pay for?” I lined them all up, asked what each one really gains from a giant screen, and ranked them.

Quick honesty first. I haven’t seen any of these yet, and I’m not going to pretend I have. What follows is built from release dates, early review scores where they exist, runtimes, ratings and the reporting listed at the bottom. The rankings and the verdicts are mine.

Figures from Rotten Tomatoes, Boston.com’s fall preview and the reports linked at the bottom, as of Oct. 31, 2026.

The month, week by week

The U.S. dates below are the ones I could confirm. Where a rating or runtime isn’t here, it’s because I couldn’t find an official one, not because I skipped it.

My ranking: which ones deserve a ticket

I ranked these on two questions only. First, how much does this movie gain from a very big screen and a dark room? Second, how much evidence do we already have that it’s good? A movie can score high on one and low on the other, and the gap is where the interesting decisions live.

1. 1

   Godzilla Minus Zero

   RUSH TO THE BIGGEST SCREEN · Nov. 6 · R

   It’s the one movie on this list where the screen is the point. It’s rated R, it’s the first R-rated Godzilla film from the MPA, and its early Rotten Tomatoes numbers were strong (94% from 18 reviews at debut, 96% from 24 in the reporting I used). If you remember Minus One, go straight in. If you don’t, I laid out whether you need to rewatch it first.

2. 2

   Wild Horse Nine

   GO, ON ANY SCREEN · Nov. 6 · R · 1 h 58 min

   This is the film with the sturdiest evidence behind it on the November calendar: 93% on Rotten Tomatoes from 110 reviews, which is a much bigger pile than any other title has so far. It follows two CIA officers (John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell) sent to Easter Island, and SlashFilm’s reviewer described it as a dialogue-driven chamber piece rather than an action film and gave it a 9 out of 10. That’s why it sits at number two and not number one: you don’t need IMAX for it, you need good actors and a quiet room full of strangers.

3. 3

   The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth

   GO IF YOU LOVE THE FORMAT · Nov. 25 · IMAX, then Netflix Dec. 23

   Fincher directing Brad Pitt from a new Quentin Tarantino script is hard to resist, and there are no reviews yet, so my ranking here is excitement, not evidence. The honest question is the 28-day gap. If you care about IMAX, go. If you’d be just as happy on your couch, Netflix will have it in four weeks. I wrote up what reporters said was in the first 17 minutes.

4. 4

   The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

   FOR FANS: GO. FOR EVERYONE ELSE: WAIT FOR REVIEWS · Nov. 20 · PG-13 · 2 h 30 min

   A two-and-a-half-hour prequel is a commitment, and I couldn’t confirm a review score as I wrote this. If you love this world, you’ll be in the theater anyway, and I’d be too (my full preview is here). If you’re a casual viewer, give it one weekend and let the reviews do the work. The longer I think about it, the more I believe the movie’s fate rests on whether Haymitch’s heartbreak lands, which is a story question, not a screen-size question.

5. 5

   How to Rob a Bank

   WAIT FOR REVIEWS · Nov. 13 · 122 min

   On paper it has a lot going for it: Leitch directing, Nicholas Hoult and Zoë Kravitz (who shared Mad Max: Fury Road), plus Pete Davidson, John C. Reilly, Christian Slater and Anna Sawai. A crew that documents its own heists on social media is a fun hook. But a release date that moved from September to November isn’t proof of anything, and I couldn’t find a U.S. rating or a review score, so I’m holding my ticket until I see how critics and audiences react.

6. 6

   Hexed

   FAMILY PICK, WAIT FOR REVIEWS · Wed. Nov. 25 · PG listing

   It’s Walt Disney Animation Studios’ first original, non-sequel movie since Wish, and I’m rooting for it. But families spend real money on a Thanksgiving movie, so I’d look at the reviews before packing the car. I covered everything known about Hexed here.

7. 7

   Focker-in-Law

   FINE ON STREAMING · Wed. Nov. 25 · Universal

   This is my least urgent ticket, and I’ll say plainly that it’s a matter of taste. The comedy doesn’t need a huge screen, the last film in the series came out 16 years ago, and I couldn’t find a rating, runtime or reviews. If you love the original cast (Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo all return, with Ariana Grande newly aboard), a laugh with a full theater may be worth it. For everyone else, I’d wait.

The whole month in one table

If you only read one thing before you pick a movie night, make it this. Each row is one release, and I kept it short enough to read on a phone without sliding anything sideways.

The Wednesday pile-up before Thanksgiving

Here’s the part of the calendar I find fascinating. Studios love Thanksgiving week because families have time off, so three very different movies land on the same Wednesday, Nov. 25: a live-action comedy sequel, a Disney animated original and a Fincher crime movie in IMAX. They’re not really fighting each other for the same audience, and that’s probably the point.

The comedy has a built-in name. The first three Meet the Parents films grossed, in order, over $330 million, $522 million and $310 million, according to The Wrap, so this sequel has a legacy to either honor or squander. The Disney movie is a gamble on a new idea. The Fincher movie has the loudest creative pedigree. If you can only see one that week, I’d choose by who’s sitting next to you, not by which trailer got more views.

If you can only afford one trip to the theater

I’ll make this easy, because that’s what a guide is for. Pick the line that sounds most like your month.

Two things people think open this month, and don’t

Greta Gerwig’s Narnia. It was once pitched for an IMAX run around Thanksgiving 2026, and you’ll still find that in older articles. It has since been moved. The Magician’s Nephew now opens in theaters Feb. 12, 2027 and streams on Netflix April 2, which I covered when the first look dropped.

Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three. Both are December films, opening Dec. 18. If your November plans feel crowded, take comfort: December is worse. I broke down which one to see first.

My take

I love a month like this because it forces a decision, and decisions tell you what you actually care about. Mine is simple. I want one movie where the room does half the work, and I want one movie where the actors do all of it. Godzilla Minus Zero and Wild Horse Nine are those two, and both open on the same Friday. If November ended right there, I’d be happy.

The part I want to be optimistic about is the middle of the calendar. A lot of us have gotten used to treating every opening weekend like a deadline. It isn’t one. How to Rob a Bank and Sunrise on the Reaping are going to be fine, or they won’t, and either way you’ll know by Sunday. Spending your ticket on a movie critics already like is a quiet little superpower, and it costs you nothing but a few days.

I’m also not going to pretend my ranking is gospel. Reading a Rotten Tomatoes number isn’t the same as sitting in the seat. Take the list as a starting point and then trust your own gut, especially on Focker-in-Law. If that cast makes you smile, that’s a real reason to go, and no ranking of mine should talk you out of it.

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