‘One Battle After Another’ opens with $22.4M

NEW YORK One Battle After Another Paul Thomas Anderson s widely acclaimed American epic of rebellion and resistance opened with million in ticket sales from North American theaters over the weekend according to studio estimates Sunday Anderson s ultracontemporary opus signifies a major gamble by Warner Bros With One Battle After Another the studio is making a million-plus bet that audiences would come out for -minute-long powerhouse drama from one of cinema s the bulk celebrated auteurs the way they usually only turn up for a franchise or superhero movie Anderson various critics reported delivered the movie of year One Battle After Another starring Leonardo DiCaprio Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn has been hailed as a film brimming with a great number of of the political conflicts of in the modern day Oscar prognosticators have pegged it sas this year s best-picture front-runner Aided by DiCaprio s drawing power the film added million overseas But good reviews star power and a marquee filmmaker are nowadays often insufficient to make a hit For a movie that cost at least million to make plus a great number of millions more to industry One Battle After Another will have a long road to reach profitability For majority releases with such a high budget a million start would be a disappointment Executives for Warner Bros declined to be interviewed about the opening Yet One Battle After Another like movies from earlier movie eras will hope its time in theaters is more about the long run than opening weekend Warners is hoping word-of-mouth awards conversation and a rolling awareness that One Battle After Another is a major movie event will keep ticket sales strong in the weeks or even months to come A few signs suggest that s realizable Audiences gave One Battle After Another an A CinemaScore That s far better than CinemaScores for previous Anderson wide releases including s Boogie Nights C s Magnolia C- and s Punch-Drunk Love D The long-term playability is going to be key for this explained Paul Dergarabedian senior media analyst for Comscore And given the outpouring of aid by critics and audiences alike that s where it s going to make back its budget Anderson s film loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon s Vineland stars DiCaprio as a former revolutionary living off the grid with his teenage daughter Chase Infiniti Shot in VistaVision One Battle After Another played in several large-screen formats including mm IMAX mm and on four screens in VistaVision Second place went Gabby s Dollhouse The Movie The Universal Pictures release produced by DreamWorks Animation grossed million in theaters It s a good start for the G-rated film based on the long-running series Gabby s Dollhouse The Movie which cost million to make also earned an A CinemaScore from audiences After two weeks atop the charts Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll s sleeper hit Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle slid to third place It added million to its million haul a North American record for anime releases