One Battle After Another is certainly a milestone in Paul Thomas Anderson’s career. The near-universally critically acclaimed political action thriller is the director’s highest-grossing movie to date, and may just win him an Oscar after a long career of many lauded films. However, One Battle After Another‘s distance from PTA’s second-highest-grossing movie just got more impressive.
Anderson’s latest cinematic entry follows a group of contemporary revolutionaries, a few of whom are former members of the vigilante group the French 75, who race to evade capture and rescue teenage Willa (Chase Infiniti), who is being pursued by Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn). One Battle After Another‘s cast also includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor.
The movie instantly became the most profitable in Anderson’s career, as it grossed $48 million worldwide in its opening weekend in comparison to Licorice Pizza‘s $32.9 million overall global gross. However, now, just over a month after its theatrical release, One Battle After Another has doubled Licorice Pizza‘s total gross in domestic sales alone, reaching $66.6 million.
While this is One Battle After Another‘s total domestic gross so far, its worldwide gross to date is $185.2 million. But despite its undeniable success, One Battle After Another was still projected to lose Warner Bros. $100 million as of mid-October. The movie’s budget is reported to be $130 million, with an additional $70 million spent on promotional materials.
Movies typically need to gross 2.5x their budget to break even, meaning One Battle After Another would need to earn at least $300 million to technically be profitable. After a month in theaters, with other possible 2026 Oscar nominees releasing soon to compete with it, Anderson’s entry isn’t likely to gross the additional massive amounts of money needed to break even.
One Battle After Another is in an interesting position as it is widely regarded as one of the standouts of the director’s career and is a serious possibility to win Best Picture. Its rave reviews prove that it is successful, even though it is very unlikely to be so commercially. There is a clear separation between types of success in this case, and Warner Bros. execs may be pondering if the price tag was worth the acclaim.
Warner Bros. overall was coming off a record-breaking summer at the box office when One Battle After Another was released, and had plenty of commercial success elsewhere, with films that were also generally well reviewed. In another case study about the pitfalls of a high budget, One Battle After Another will have to be satisfied with breaking all the records, even if that doesn’t actually earn any money.
- Release Date
-
September 26, 2025
- Runtime
-
162 minutes
- Producers
-
Adam Somner