Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another won the weekend box office in its September 26th premiere at $22 million domestically, which was a personal best for the director. However, it experienced a 50% drop when Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl ruled the weekend box office, just like she did when The Eras Tour broke through in 2023. After claims went down that the Leonardo DiCaprio-led movie could allegedly lose the studio $100 million, Warner Bros. defended itself and made sure to mention A Minecraft Movie and Sinners.
While One Battle After Another is at $141.9 million so far, Variety states that the action-thriller needs $300 million to break even. This is because Warner Bros. spent more than $130 million on production and $70 million on marketing. With studios and movie theaters getting a 50-50 cut in box office revenue, Leonardo DiCaprio would get a percentage of the box office before studios get back anything.
Due to the Paul Thomas Anderson movie launching its multimillion-dollar Oscar campaign, Variety reports that Warner Bros. executives claimed that the studio is allegedly tracking to lose $100 million. A Warner Bros. spokesperson wasn’t having it, explaining that the studio is actually doing better than ever for 2025 movie releases:
Warner Bros. refutes Variety’s anonymous sources and their uninformed estimates. Films across the studio’s slate, including One Battle After Another, have achieved financial reward in 2025 with more than $4 billion earned to date.
The $4 billion refers to box office revenue and not profits, but the spokesperson made sure to mention that movies like A Minecraft Movie and Sinners were studio successes. Jared Hess’ video game adaptation was just what the box office needed after this year’s slow start, earning $957.8 million and becoming the third-highest-grossing film of the year. Ryan Coogler’s horror flick had two great box office weekends and ultimately scored $367 million. These two movies were certainly raking in the box office dough for Warner Bros.
You definitely can’t say that Warner Bros. is suffering. In fact, the studio achieved a box office milestone because of original movies like Sinners and F1. They had six consecutive films open with a box office of at least $40 million. Especially considering Sinners, F1, and Weapons were not in the franchise, superhero realm, it’s amazing that they managed to draw large audiences with their original content. It proves that you don’t always have to be a remake, sequel or spinoff to be a safe bet for studios.
One Battle After Another may have a box office battle on its hands due to its underwhelming commercial performance. However, a Warner Bros. exec cleared the air that the studio is not struggling due to how well the opening weekends of A Minecraft Movie and Sinners reached. Hopefully, with the Leonardo DiCaprio movie’s critical acclaim and potential awards buzz, the thriller flick can luck out when it hits streaming.
Make sure to give One Battle After Another a chance, playing in theaters now.
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