Is V for Vendetta Worth Seeing in Theaters on Nov. 5? The 20th Anniversary Re-Release, R Rating, 2 Hours 12 Minutes, the Movie That Missed Guy Fawkes Night in 2005, and Why I Say Go

Remember, remember: tonight, Thursday, Nov. 5, V for Vendetta is back in U.S. theaters for its 20th anniversary. Fathom Entertainment, Saga Arts and Warner Bros. announced the two-night run (Sunday, Nov. 1, and tonight) exactly one year ago, on Nov. 5, 2025, with a teaser that borrowed V’s “one year from tonight” idea. I think that’s one of the smartest re-release announcements I’ve seen.

I haven’t been to tonight’s screening, so this isn’t a review of the event. It’s the guide I’d want before buying a ticket: what’s confirmed, the real history the movie leans on, my own scorecard for the film at 20, and who I’d send to the theater and who I’d tell to stay home. Every number below comes from the sources listed at the bottom, and where they disagree I tell you.

When is V for Vendetta back in theaters, how long is it and why is it rated R?

In the U.S., the anniversary event runs through Fathom, which books special screenings into big chains. The announced dates were Sunday, Nov. 1, and Thursday, Nov. 5, so tonight is the second and last night I could find. I didn’t find any extra dates announced as of Thursday, and Fathom’s own site is the place to check for yours. Comic Watch reports that tickets went on sale with a trailer that uses a new, anniversary-inspired take on Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture by Jonathan Snipes of the group clipping.

The runtime is 132 minutes on most listings, which is 2 hours 12 minutes before trailers. The R rating is for strong violence and some language, per the MPAA line in the release materials. If you’re in the UK, Empire reported last year that the film was also planned to return to UK cinemas in November 2026, but I don’t have UK dates, so check your local cinema.

Why Nov. 5? The real Guy Fawkes history behind the movie, in six dates

The film’s whole look comes from one night in 1605, so here’s the short version of what actually happened and how the movie’s own calendar fits around it.

1. Nov. 4–5, 1605Guy Fawkes is found guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the House of Lords. Sources differ on whether he was caught late on Nov. 4 or around midnight into Nov. 5, but they agree on the barrels and the place.
2. Jan. 1606Parliament makes Nov. 5 a day of public thanksgiving for the plot’s failure. Bonfires and fireworks grew out of that, which is why the date is still called Bonfire Night.
3. 1988–89DC Vertigo publishes Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta as a limited series. This is the book the movie adapts.
4. Nov. 4, 2005The film’s original U.S. release date, a day before the 400th Guy Fawkes Night. It was delayed, and reports differ on why: post-production delays are the usual answer, and some coverage at the time linked it to the July 2005 London bombings.
5. Mar. 17, 2006The movie finally opens in the U.S. and the UK, more than four months after the date it was built around.
6. Nov. 5, 2026The re-release lands on the date the poster always asked you to remember, 21 years after the first plan.

One detail I love because it gets lost: Fawkes wasn’t the ringleader. Robert Catesby led the plot, and Fawkes was the man left to guard the gunpowder and light the fuse. So the mask people wear every Nov. 5 is, in a way, the face of the guy who got caught. I think that’s a pretty good fit for a story about a man who turns a failure into a symbol.

V for Vendetta box office and reviews: what the numbers say at 20

The film opened at No. 1 in March 2006 and then settled into a solid, not huge, run. Trackers disagree a little on the worldwide total and the budget, so I’m showing ranges instead of pretending there’s one clean number.

My read: even at the low end, the worldwide gross is more than double the reported budget, so Warner got its money back and then some, before marketing costs I don’t have. The 73% and the 62 tell a story too. A lot of people liked it, fewer critics loved it, and that gap is basically the movie’s whole reputation for 20 years.

My V for Vendetta scorecard at 20: six parts, scored out of 10

This is my own ranking of the pieces of the movie, not a critics’ average. I scored what I think holds up on a big screen, since that’s what tonight is about.

Why people still argue about V for Vendetta: the two camps

Twenty years on, the fight over this movie hasn’t changed much. Here’s how I’d split it, and which side I land on.

I’m in Camp 1, with an asterisk. I think the movie works best as a big, loud thriller and an experience, not as a serious argument about politics. If you want the argument, the comic is the place to go.

Four things about the making of V for Vendetta that most people miss

1. Hugo Weaving wasn’t the first V. James Purefoy was cast and left a few weeks into filming (sources say anywhere from three to six weeks). Accounts differ on why, from creative differences to trouble acting in the mask. Some of his scenes stayed in with Weaving’s voice dubbed over.
2. It was the last film of cinematographer Adrian Biddle. He died on Dec. 7, 2005, at 53, months before the movie came out, according to Mental Floss.
3. It was James McTeigue’s directing debut. He had been first assistant director on the Matrix movies, and the Wachowskis, who wrote the screenplay, picked him for the job.
4. Its first public screening was in December 2005. Wikipedia lists the Butt-Numb-A-Thon film marathon on Dec. 11, 2005, about three months before the wide release.

Who should see V for Vendetta in theaters tonight, and who should skip it?

My take: why I say go see V for Vendetta tonight, and what would change my mind

Here’s what I keep coming back to. A re-release that’s timed to a date inside the movie shouldn’t work as well as it does. It’s a gimmick. But the whole film is a gimmick in the best sense: a masked man, a poem, a date and a building. It trusts the audience to feel the rest, and I think that’s why it plays like an event instead of a rerun.

I’m also an optimist about this kind of night. A theater full of strangers, a loud finale and a story about people deciding that a symbol can matter is not a bad way to spend a Thursday. You can love the film or hate what the mask has come to stand for, and tonight still works as shared culture, which is getting rarer.

What would change my mind? A third act that feels thinner on a big screen than I remember. I’m also betting on the experience here, since I haven’t sat through tonight’s screening. The film’s weak spot, the blunt politics, doesn’t go away in a theater. It just gets drowned out by the best scene in the movie.

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