‘The Cat in the Hat’ Lands on Rotten Tomatoes With A Split Verdict From Critics On Opening Day

Dr. Seuss’s feline troublemaker has had a rocky history on the big screen. The last major attempt, a 2003 live-action version starring Mike Myers, was widely panned and sits at a 10% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also led the Seuss estate to steer future feature films toward animation.

The new animated take has had a bumpy road of its own. Warner Bros. Pictures pushed the release date from Feb. 27, 2026, to Nov. 6, 2026, and the film is the first to release under the newly relaunched Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. Directed and written by Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja, it arrives with Bill Hader voicing the Cat and a deep bench of comedy talent behind him.

Now the first critical numbers are in, and they are a mixed bag. ‘The Cat in the Hat’ currently sits at 49% on the Tomatometer based on 41 reviews, while the Popcornmeter has not yet posted a score because it has fewer than 50 verified ratings. That puts the film in a split-verdict zone just as it hits theaters.

Reviews have been divided on how well the film balances Seuss’s whimsy with blockbuster ambition. One widely syndicated review said the film builds the stakes so high that the universe could die, and described it as what happens when lots of money gets thrown at a movie with middling returns. It also noted onscreen references to possible spinoffs for the jet-powered magical couch and the Things.

The AV Club joked that it is not a ‘Cat in the Hat’ movie unless the fate of the universe is at stake. It added that the Cat’s unpredictability, emphasized by Hader’s pleased-with-himself muttering, adds some madcap energy to a movie in desperate need of it.

Not every critic is on the same page. Laughing Place compared the film to ‘Mary Poppins’ on a rainy day and said it can hold its own next to the near-perfect 1971 TV special, coming surprisingly close. Early viewers also described the film as wildly funny, inventive, heartfelt and whimsical.

The story follows the Cat, a chaos agent who appears to children to shake up their days and spark some imagination. Carloni has said the team used the book as a jumping-off point, with the world drawing on many different worlds and aesthetics.

New trailer for ‘The Cat In The Hat’, in theaters on November 6th. The trailer features Hilary Duff’s new song “CATastrophe.” https://t.co/Vk0fmjOf9y

— Cartoon History (@Cartoonhistory2) October 4, 2026

The stakes are also financial, since this is the first Dr. Seuss animated movie at Warner Bros. Producers had hoped to match the success of 2018’s ‘The Grinch’, which grossed over $500 million worldwide. The studio also had an incredible run at the box office in 2025 that it would love to recapture.

Tracking recently projected a domestic opening of $17 million to $22 million against a budget of nearly $100 million. That is well below earlier expectations, when Box Office Pro’s long-range forecast pointed to $40 million to $50 million. Other forecasts landed in between, with Box Office Theory projecting $25 million to $35 million.

Warner Bros. is also coming off a difficult year, with ‘The Bride!’, ‘Supergirl’, ‘The End of Oak Street’ and ‘Digger’ all disappointing at the box office. A strong opening for the Cat could help change that narrative.

Hader has deep history with the character. He humorously played the Dr. Seuss character in 2014 while hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’, and the film is his first announced project since ‘Barry’ ended in 2023. He also serves as an executive producer, and he spoke at CinemaCon about actively chasing the role.

Alongside Hader, the voice cast includes Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang, Xochitl Gomez, Matt Berry and Paula Pell. Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera and Tituss Burgess also round out the lineup. Marketing for the film has leaned on Hilary Duff’s new song ‘CATastrophe’, which appears in a trailer, and DNEG Animation is the animation studio partner.

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