One Battle After Another Opens to Rapturous Reviews

Paul Thomas Anderson’s tenth film, One Battle After Another, opened on Sept. 26 via Warner Bros., starring Leonardo DiCaprio alongside Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn and Regina Hall. It opened to rapturous critical acclaim—praised by some critics and filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese—and holds very high Rotten Tomatoes scores. The film posted a roughly $21–22.4 million domestic opening weekend and about $48–52 million worldwide against a reported production budget north of $130 million. Audiences responded positively (an A CinemaScore), and critics singled out its inventive visual and sound design and sustained cinematic action. At roughly 160–170 minutes, studios and pundits note Warner Bros. gambled on an unusually long auteur picture in late September and say the studio is banking on strong legs, word-of-mouth and awards momentum to reach profitability.