Amidst glowing reviews and the combined star power of leading man Leonardo DiCaprio and auteur director Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another opened in the #1 spot with $21 million, as well as a global haul of $48 million. That’s a pretty good opening, but for a film carrying a price tag in excess of $130 million, is it enough?
I wonder if Warner Bros should have held out on pulling the trigger with this one. Late September feels a tiny bit early for an awards season contender. Then again, with its crowd-pleasing, blockbuster sensibilities, maybe it’ll have the staying power to continue to play over the next few months. By all accounts, One Battle After Another is a winner, so even if it comes up short now, it will hit home video just in time for Oscar nominations, so WB plans to earn lots of money, not just now, but down the line. In any case, this is one where the opening weekend is just the first page of the story.
In second place, we find Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie. I’ll be honest, I have no idea what this is. But with an opening of $13.7 million, whatever marketing the film had clearly worked in its favor… Okay, let me look this up… Ah, it’s a kids’ movie based on a Netflix/Dreamworks kids’ show! Well, that’s interesting. We’ve seen lots of movies get animated spinoffs on streaming, but Netflix properties (which this kinda sorta is) seldom make the jump to the big screen. However, between this movie’s strong opening and the success of the sing-along version of KPop Demon Hunters a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more big-screen Netflix releases, even if Ted Sarandos doesn’t want it.
Speaking of unorthodox box office hits, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is still hanging in there in third place with $7.1 million, bringing its domestic haul to $118 million. Worldwide, the anime hit has crossed the six century mark and currently sits at $602 million.
In fifth place, we find the next new release of the week, The Strangers: Chapter 2. The middle chapter of the ambitious reboot trilogy opened to just $5.9 million, or a little over half of Chapter 1’s $11.8 million opening in May of 2024. Chapter 1 played things a little too safe, so while Chapter 2 certainly blows things up, so to speak, it might be too little, too late. Word of mouth might not be enough to turn Chapter 2 into a hit, but if they time it right, Chapter 3 still has a chance to end the trilogy with a box office bang. It depends on if they can get the word out via home video and streaming. Overall, I think they took too long to release Chapter 2. Whatever happens, I’m sure WB is taking notes and trying to figure out how to handle the release of their other multi-part epic, Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga (Just let me watch Part 2, you cowards!)
Elsewhere in the top 10, Him sunk like a stone, dropping 72% to $3.6 million in its second weekend. Indian import They Call Him OG earned $5.2 million from its Thursday opening. While not quite RRR numbers, it shows that there’s still an audience for Indian action at the US box office. In 10th place, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey didn’t do much to salvage its abysmal opening, dropping 62% and bringing in just $1.25 million for a “grand” total of $5.9 million over two weeks ($14 million worldwide)
Outside the top 10 we find Eleanor the Great and Dead of Winter, both of which I reviewed this week. While neither of them had blockbuster expectations, it would have been nice to see one or both of them find a way to break into the top 10.
Next week sees the release of horror thriller Bone Lake and Rock “The Dwayne” Johnson’s MMA biopic, The Smashing Machine, but all eyes will be on the second weekend of One Battle After Another, to see how it handles one weekend after another.
Related: Last Week’s Box Office Report
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