- - “One Battle After Another ”scores Paul Thomas Anderson a career-best $22.4 million open at the box office

Ryan ColemanSeptember 28, 2025 at 5:25 PM

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Warner Bros.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in 'One Battle After Another'Key Points -

One Battle After Another earned Paul Thomas Anderson the best box office open of his career with a $22.4 million domestic take and $48.5 million globally.

Elsewhere on the domestic and global charts, the G-rated Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie took No. 2, and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle added another $7.1 million.

Next week, The Smashing Machine, the gritty sports biopic directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson, hits theaters.

Paul Thomas Anderson decisively won the box office battle this weekend.

The American auteur's latest concoction, radical comedic thriller One Battle After Another, earned Anderson the best box office open of his career this weekend, with a $22.4 million take domestically and an impressive global haul of $48.5 million, per Comscore.

Anderson, 55, has directed many that went on to international acclaim and awards, but that hasn't always translated into profitability. His highest-grossing film at the domestic box office, There Will Be Blood, was given a limited release in 2008 that raked in less than $200,000. But even once the film opened wide, it would take six weeks to surpass the sum One Battle After Another earned in just three days.

The combined star power of Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, and Sean Penn has boosted this adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland to new heights for Anderson. Though it's still far short of its estimated $130 million budget, the film likely has legs on its awards buzz.

DreamWorks Animation

Laila Lockhart Kraner in 'Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie'

Elsewhere on the domestic and global leaderboards this weekend are Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie, a feature adaptation of the celebrated, interactive preschool series. Featuring Black-ish star Laila Lockhart Kraner, Gabby's Dollhouse scored an impressive $19.2 million globally and $13.7 million domestically in its opening weekend, earning it the No. 2 spot.

Japan's dark anime fantasy Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle continued its global onslaught by securing an additional $7.1 million in its third week in U.S. theaters. Around the world, the latest film in the sprawling, multi-media Infinity Castle franchise crossed the $600 million mark, securing it a spot among the 10 highest grossing films of the year on the global charts thus far.

The slasher sequel The Strangers: Chapter 2 opened to $5.9 million this weekend, earning the No. 5 spot domestically and representing a mixed blessing for director Renny Harlin. While the middle installment in the planned reboot trilogy starring Riverdale breakout Madelaine Petsch earned $7.2 million globally, meaning it's sure to surpass its estimated budget of $8.5 million, this weekend's opening figure represents the worst in franchise history, and a steep fall from the 2008 original's $21 million start.

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There's more bad news in horror for Him, the football thriller starring I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot star Tyriq Withers. After a disappointing $13.5 million opening, the film added only $3.6 million domestically in week 2 against an estimated budget of $27 million, which is likely closer to $50 or even $60 million, factoring in marketing costs.

Next week sees the release of several titles that have a decent shot of contending for the box office crown against One Battle After Another.

Most promising is The Smashing Machine, the new sports biopic of mixed martial artist Mark Kerr from director Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson. Box office watchers are eyeing an opening figure around $20 million, but the film is pitted against the aquatic horror Bone Lake, the comedy-horror canine thriller Good Boy, and The Ice Tower, French visionary filmmaker Luicle Hadzihalilovic's fairy tale-esque star vehicle for Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.

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