Stallone Biopic I Play Rocky Opens in Select Cinemas Ahead of November 20 Wide Release

Amazon MGM Studios' Sylvester Stallone biopic I Play Rocky opened in select cinemas on November 6, 2026, and it is scheduled to go wide on November 20. Going wide means moving from a handful of cinemas to many more. For now, the film is playing at seven locations in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, according to Deadline.

The film is a biopic of Stallone, directed by Peter Farrelly from a screenplay by Peter Gamble. Anthony Ippolito plays the young Stallone. It had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, and it held a special screening in Philadelphia before its opening, as the Northeast Times reported. Amazon MGM had positioned the film as an awards-season limited opening, a release that starts small so that it can build word of mouth before the awards voting period.

Several other specialty films opened the same week, which is the term for smaller releases that usually play in fewer cinemas than the big studio titles. A24's Club Kid opened in six theatres in New York and Los Angeles. It is the directorial debut of Jordon Firstman. Its Rotten Tomatoes rating, a score that averages critics' reviews, is 100% Certified Fresh, according to Deadline.

Searchlight Pictures' Wild Horse Nine opened on 1,100 screens. The film is by Martin McDonagh, and it earned $900,000 in total previews, which are early paid screenings held before the official opening day. Deadline also reported that John Malkovich won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for the film. It has a 95% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Earlier this autumn, it was listed among the films set to screen at the 11-day Zurich Film Festival.

Netflix's La Bola Negra expands to 473 theatre locations, a much larger footprint for a title from the streaming service. Deadline's specialty preview also listed Mouse, Jimmy, Godzilla Minus Zero, Everytime and Nuisance Bear among this week's openings.

Two names from this week's list also appeared in late October. The Santa Barbara Film Festival named Jordon Firstman and Anthony Ippolito among its Awards 2027 honorees, as Deadline reported on October 29.

What the November calendar shows is a crowded run of releases. Studios use this stretch to place films in front of audiences and voters before the year closes. The next key date for I Play Rocky is November 20, when more cinemas are expected to show it.