Leonardo DiCaprio’s One Battle After Another scores a $22 million opening weekend at the box office after critics hailed it as ‘the defining film of a generation

Leonardo DiCaprio’s One Battle After Another topped box office charts on its opening weekend, collecting $22.4 million (£16.7 million) from 3,634 North American theaters.

The action-thriller film added another $26.1 million (£19.4 million) internationally for a global tally of $48.5 million (£36 million).

Box office experts have mixed opinions on the initial results, as a low $20 million debut is typically disappointing for a film that cost above $130 million to produce and another $70 million to market.

However, the film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is original, meaning it can take longer to build excitement compared to a franchise.

David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research told Variety: ‘This movie has a chance of getting to profitability if it lasts long enough in theaters and/or overperforms abroad.

‘It’s going to get a lot of awards nominations, but that’s two to three months away and unlikely to help this immediate release.’

Leonardo DiCaprio ‘s One Battle After Another topped box office charts on its opening weekend, collecting $22.4 million (£16.7 million) from 3,634 North American theate.

The action-thriller film added another $26.1 million (£19.4 million) internationally for a global tally of $48.5 million (£36 million).

Leonardo previously said he thinks box-office numbers will always be ‘important’.

The 50-year-old actor – who is one of the best-paid movie stars in the world – acknowledges the ever-increasing importance of streaming platforms, but he believes the box-office will always be a significant element of the film industry.

He told Variety: ‘I think there’s just an inundation of content and so much production going on now – which is a good thing, obviously. But I think box office is important because it means people are in the seats going to theatre, going to have that communal experience.’

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest movie offering One Battle After Another won phenomenal praise and generated Oscar buzz among critics.

The Leonardo DiCaprio-fronted film, an action-thriller based loosely on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, has been greeted with five-star reviews across the board and even deemed ‘the defining film of a generation’.

The Standard’s Nick Howells, awarding the movie five stars, wrote: ‘Anderson has directed the coolest, most consummately masterful movie you’re likely to see all year. And it’s got Oscars glory just oozing out of every frame.’

While Leonardo is typically the draw of blockbusters, Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘electrifyingly improbable’ work was the topic on critics’ lips, with many echoing back to previous ‘masterpieces’ Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread.

It is not only critics raving about the film but also bookmakers, as Ladbrokes has taken the odds of the movie winning the 2026 Academy Award for Best Picture from 12/1 last week, to a remarkable and rare evens.

Leonardo previously said he thinks box-office numbers will always be ‘important’.

One Battle After Another sees Leo playing Bob Ferguson, a dishevelled and distraught revolutionary who lives in a state of stoned paranoia off-grid with his daughter Willa, whom he shares with Teyana Taylor’s character Perfidia.

The film follows Bob as he reconnects with a group of allies on a mission to track down his daughter, with Benicio Del Toro playing his sensei, guiding him through a life without fear.

The high-stakes thriller and black comedy also sees Sean Penn starring as Bob’s evil nemesis, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, and Regina Hall playing revolutionary Deandra.

Winning praise from the top, Steven Spielberg gushed: ‘What an insane movie, oh my God. There is more action in the first hour of this than every other film you’ve ever directed put together. Everything, it is really incredible…

‘This is such a concoction of things that are so bizarre and at the same time so relevant, that I think have become increasingly more relevant than perhaps even when you finished the screenplay and assembled your cast and crew and began production.’

In a five star rating from The Daily Mail, Brian Viner writes: ‘DiCaprio’s is not even the most eye-catching performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s irresistibly funny, thunderously exhilarating film.

‘Sean Penn pinches every scene he’s in as an unhinged army officer, driven first by lust and later by loathing, whose downfall, when it comes, is one of the most startling things you will see in the cinema this year.

‘Anderson has already made one of the best pictures of the 21st century, in 2007’s There Will be Blood. This one, loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, is comparably fine.’

He added: ‘He knows he’s made something special, indeed the next time we hear him might be when he holds aloft an Academy Award.’

With yet another five star rating, The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin writes: ‘We’re used to Anderson, the director of There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, coming back with a surprise up his sleeve…

L-R Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor and Benicio del Toro .

‘But even so, it’s hard to overstate just how electrifyingly improbable his latest picture is: a sprawling Dr Strangelove-style satire which pits Antifa types.

There’s something deeply 1970s Hollywood, too, about the level of confidence he has in his audience.

‘For more than two-and-a-half hours, he trusts us to cling on all the way up to the climactic pursuit, set on a bumpy stretch of desert road, with shots to make your stomach levitate…

‘It’s a roller-coaster ending to a film that has you disembarking shaky and elated, and ready to stagger right back into the queue.’

Caryn James for BBC comment on how the ‘ambitious film work runs so smoothly’.

She writes: ‘Paul Thomas Anderson is the brilliant mind and Leonardo DiCaprio the emotional heart of this timely, audacious comic-action-drama…

‘In a decade or two when the great New Hollywood directors of the 1970s are gone, Anderson might be the greatest living American director…

‘One of Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood or Phantom Thread would be enough for most careers, but excellence is almost routine for PTA. His remarkable quality control remains intact with this formidable piece of work.’

The Cinematic Reel’s David Gonzalez penned: ‘This emerges as more than just another great film; it is the movie of the moment, the movie of the year, and possibly the defining film of a generation. Ultimately, a monumental cinematic achievement.’

One X user wrote: ‘Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER’ is the most radical movie released by a Hollywood studio in years, and one of the best movies you may ever watch.’.