Online Reporter
Leonardo DiCaprio’s One Battle After Another topped box office charts on its opening weekend, collecting US$22.4 million from 3,634 North American theaters.
The action-thriller film added another US$26.1 million internationally for a global tally of $48.5 million (£36 million).
Box office experts have mixed opinions on the initial results, as a low US$20 million debut is typically disappointing for a film that cost above US$130 million to produce and another US$70 million to market.
However, the film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is original, meaning it can take longer to build excitement compared to a franchise.
David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research told Variety:
“This movie has a chance of getting to profitability if it lasts long enough in theatres and/or over performs abroad.
“It’s going to get a lot of awards nominations, but that’s two to three months away and unlikely to help this immediate release.”
Leonardo previously said he thinks box-office numbers will always be ‘important’.
The 50-year-old actor – who is one of the best-paid movie stars in the world – acknowledges the ever-increasing importance of streaming platforms, but he believes the box-office will always be a significant element of the film industry.
He told Variety: “I think there’s just an inundation of content and so much production going on now – which is a good thing, obviously. But I think box office is important because it means people are in the seats going to theatre, going to have that communal experience.”
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest movie offering One Battle After Another won phenomenal praise and generated Oscar buzz among critics.
The Leonardo DiCaprio-fronted film, an action-thriller based loosely on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, has been greeted with five-star reviews across the board and even deemed ‘the defining film of a generation’.
The Standard’s Nick Howells, awarding the movie five stars, wrote: ‘Anderson has directed the coolest, most consummately masterful movie you’re likely to see all year. And it’s got Oscars glory just oozing out of every frame.’
While Leonardo is typically the draw of blockbusters, Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘electrifyingly improbable’ work was the topic on critics’ lips, with many echoing back to previous ‘masterpieces’ Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread.
It is not only critics raving about the film but also bookmakers, as Ladbrokes has taken the odds of the movie winning the 2026 Academy Award for Best Picture from 12/1 last week, to a remarkable and rare evens. One Battle After Another sees Leo playing Bob Ferguson, a dishevelled and distraught revolutionary who lives in a state of stoned paranoia off-grid with his daughter Willa, whom he shares with Teyana Taylor’s character Perfidia.
The film follows Bob as he reconnects with a group of allies on a mission to track down his daughter, with Benicio Del Toro playing his sensei, guiding him through a life without fear.
The high-stakes thriller and black comedy also sees Sean Penn starring as Bob’s evil nemesis, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, and Regina Hall playing revolutionary Deandra.
Winning praise from the top, Steven Spielberg gushed: ‘What an insane movie, oh my God. There is more action in the first hour of this than every other film you’ve ever directed put together. Everything, it is really incredible…- Mailonline
Mathew Masinge