Maxance Vincent
Predictably so, One Battle After Another climbed to the top spot of the weekend as its highest-grossing movie, ending Warner Bros’ incredible streak of $40 million+ openings since A Minecraft Movie positioned the studio as an incredibly envious force within Hollywood. In fact, their combined success made more money than Disney’s entire slate, and all they did was keep their budgets in check.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t release any tentpoles, as illustrated with F1 and Superman. Still, most of their successes come from mid-budget releases, such as Weapons and Final Destination Bloodlines. One Battle After Another carried a heftier price tag, and a pretty dour marketing campaign, Film Twitter be damned, which might have been responsible for its disappointing box office tally of $22.4 million domestic, and $48.5 million globally.
It’s honestly not terrible for a Paul Thomas Anderson film, given that he has released what is probably his most commercially successful endeavor to date, but is it a resounding win? To be honest, with Warner Bros. crossing the $4 billion mark this year, with its string of hits, it doesn’t matter. Whether or not it will leg out remains to be seen. However, word of mouth has been incredibly positive, with many critics and audience members hailing it as a “masterpiece” and “the year’s best film.” I don’t agree with either assessment, but it is an excellent movie nonetheless that begs to be experienced on the biggest possible screen. We simply don’t get epics like these regularly.
As far as other new releases are concerned, Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie came in at second place with a $13.7 million tally, while The Strangers: Chapter 2 predictably bombed with a dismal $5.9 million opening. The Strangers: Chapter 3, whenever it comes out, is already dead on arrival as both installments of the planned triloy were even less well-received than Bryan Bertino’s 2008 original, and Johannes Roberts’ 2018 sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night.
Next week will be interesting, as Awards season begins to ramp up with the release of The Smashing Machine alongside other potential heavyweights in limited release, such as Ronan Day-Lewis’s Anemone. Will One Battle After Another keep its spot and perhaps make a bigger cume than its decent, but not spectacular opening? Stay tuned to find out sooner than later!
Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:
- One Battle After Another (Warner Bros): $22.4M – 3,634 theatres
- Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie (Universal): $13.7M – 3,500 theatres
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle (Sony): $7.1M (-59%) – 2,984 theatres
- The Conjuring: Last Rites (Warner Bros): $6.8M (-44%) – 3,083 theatres
- The Strangers: Chapter 2 (Lionsgate): $5.9M – 2,690 theatres
- Him (Universal): $3.6M (-72%) – 3,168 theatres
- The Long Walk (Lionsgate): $3.4M (-45%) – 2,297 theatres
- Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (Universal): $3.3M (-48%) – 2,829 theatres
- They Call Him OG (Prathyangira Cinemas): $1.4M – 800 theatres
- A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Sony): $1.2M (-62%) – 3,330 theatres
Source: Comscore
It’ll be really interesting to see how One Battle After Another holds up in its second weekend, since the reviews and audience reactions have been rapturous.
Did Warner Bros. Pictures intentionally put forward a lousy marketing campaign out of an assumption that they couldn’t really market this thing in the traditional sense and that relying solely on word-of-mouth would give the movie stronger box office “legs?”