Leonardo DiCaprio’s new film banks $48,000,000 but faces major battle

One Battle After Another has enjoyed a remarkable opening at the box office, but it still has one major hurdle to overcome.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film follows washed-up revolutionary Bob (DiCaprio) living off the grid with his daughter, Willa (Infiniti).

Their life is thrown into disarray when a figure from their past, corrupt military official Steven J. Lockjaw (Penn), resurfaces after new information points to their whereabouts, and when Willa goes missing, Bob is forced to scramble to find her while reckoning with his past.

It opened to a worldwide total of $48.5million (£36m) at the box office, making it Anderson’s best opening to date.

A whopping $22.8m (£16.9m) came from North America, while the film raked in $26.1m (£19.4m) internationally.

However, with the film costing more than $130m (£96.6m) to produce and a further $70m (£52m) to market, One Battle After Another will need to rake in around $300m (£223m) globally to break even theatrically, according to Deadline.

Speaking to the publication, David A. Gross, from movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, said: ‘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.’

Positive word of mouth may prove key to One Battle After Another’s success, and if reviews are anything to go by, recommendations are set to be glowing.

It’s been bombarded with five-star reviews by everyone from the BBC to the Guardian, to Time Out, the Telegraph, the Independent, and Metro too.

The film currently holds a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics’ consensus reading: ‘An epic screwball adventure teeming with awe-inspiring action set pieces, One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson’s most entertaining film yet, while also one of his most thematically rich.’

In their review, The New Yorker wrote: ‘One Battle After Another, as great an American movie as I’ve seen this year, doesn’t simply meet the moment; with extraordinary tenderness, fury, and imagination, it forges a moment all its own, and insists that better ones could still lie ahead.’

MovieFreak.com added: ‘A character study full of action, comedy, familial strife, and social and political commentary, the film is a magical tapestry of an America stalled at the center of a perilous crossroads.’

The Washington Post lauded it as ‘a hellacious action movie, a suspense thriller and various other genres the director makes up as he goes along, replete with a hapless hero, a warrior princess and the damnedest villain the movies have seen in a very long time.’

Speaking to Metro at the red carpet premiere of One Battle After Another, DiCaprio thinks the film ‘holds up a mirror to who we are.’

‘It deals with extremism on both sides and the polarity of the world that we live in, where no one can seem to communicate or get along,’ he said.

‘But the undercurrent of these characters – not to say there’s a message, but I think Paul creates very flawed human characters that are trying to find the humanity in all of this.’

He continued: ‘I mean, this is a political thriller, but I don’t think he’s imposing his ideology on the audience – he’s holding up a mirror to who we are. And he wrote this 20 years ago, which is absolutely fascinating that it’s coming out at this particular time in our world’s history.’

One Battle After Another is in cinemas now.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.