By Ryan Scott
Copyright slashfilm
Before discussing anything else, we have to talk about the elephant in the room. This movie’s production budget is at least $130 million, though most reports seem to suggest it was higher than that. But even if we’re going to be generous and say it’s $130 million, the math just doesn’t work here. In a world where Christopher Nolan made “Oppenheimer” for $100 million, it never, ever made business sense to give Anderson this much money to make a film without more firmly guaranteed commercial prospects.
Even “Sinners,” which was also a huge gamble, was made for $90 million. If this movie had been made for $90 or even $100 million, we’d be having a different conversation. Other than “Sinners,” every single film in 2025 that has made at least $300 million opened to at least $50 million domestically. This movie opened to $48 million globally. The numbers just aren’t there.
I’m certainly not suggesting WB shouldn’t be making such movies. Anderson is one of our greatest living directors and DiCaprio is one of our greatest living movie stars. This film itself has been hailed as a masterpiece, with /Film’s Chris Evangelista giving “One Battle After Another” a perfect 10 out of 10 review. It also earned a great A CinemaScore, which will help with legs in the coming weeks. But making it at this level never made sense in the current theatrical marketplace. That’s a harsh reality, but it’s a reality nevertheless.
Pre-release projections had “One Battle After Another” opening with $30 million domestically on the high end. Had that indeed been the case, we might’ve been able to have a conversation about this potentially avoiding being a flop in the event that it legs out like wild all the way through awards season. As it stands, though, even with long legs in theaters, this movie is probably looking at over/under $250 million globally. That’s a great result for an R-rated film designed for adults in today’s climate, but it’s a dreadful outcome for a movie with a superhero blockbuster budget.
