Leonardo DiCaprio’s One Battle After Another has secured a spot among the actor’s top 10 best box office openings. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film follows an ex-revolutionary (DiCaprio) who must rescue his daughter after she’s taken by an old nemesis. Also starring are Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, and Sean Penn.
One Battle After Another ranks as DiCaprio’s tenth-highest opening at the domestic box office. While not as successful as Inception or The Great Gatsby, which hold the top two spots at $62.78 million and $50.08 million, respectively, Anderson’s film has already surpᴀssed several of DiCaprio’s iconic films.
One Battle After Another’s domestic opening outperformed The Wolf of Wall Street‘s $18.36 million opening, Romeo + Juliet’s $11.3 million, and the Academy Award-winning The Revenant’s $474,560 opening. See the chart of DiCaprio’s top 10 best domestic opening weekends below:
|
# |
тιтle |
Domestic Opening Total |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Inception |
$62.78 million |
|
2 |
The Great Gatsby |
$50.08 million |
|
3 |
Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood |
$41.08 million |
|
4 |
Shutter Island |
$41.06 million |
|
5 |
Django Unchained |
$30.12 million |
|
6 |
Catch Me If You Can |
$30.05 million |
|
7 |
тιтanic |
$28.6 million |
|
8 |
The Departed |
$26.88 million |
|
9 |
Killers of the Flower Moon |
$23.25 million |
|
10 |
One Battle After Another |
$22.4 million |
What This Means For DiCaprio’s Career
Part of what makes this opening weekend notable is how it reflects DiCaprio’s box office consistency across different genres. His biggest openings, like Inception and The Great Gatsby, leaned on blockbuster spectacle and grand visuals. By contrast, One Battle After Another is positioned as a prestige comedy drama, which typically draws smaller opening weekends but has long legs in theaters.
Its numbers indicate that DiCaprio’s name and performance continue to have event-level appeal. Timing also plays a role. Following the success of The Revenant and his Oscar win in 2016, DiCaprio has remained firmly in awards-friendly territory while maintaining commercial appeal. Pairing with Anderson, a filmmaker with a devoted following, only added to the attraction.
For Anderson, One Battle After Another is his strongest box office opening ever. The director is best known for critically acclaimed films like There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, which opened modestly before growing through awards buzz. Debuting with $22.4 million and a strongly positive word-of-mouth for One Battle After Another, the director achieved a career-high milestone.
If One Battle After Another sustains the momentum, it could become one of DiCaprio’s biggest non-blockbuster earners in the long run, joining Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and The Departed, both of which had impressive staying power thanks to the awards buzz and positive word of mouth.
Our Take On One Battle After Another’s Opening
One Battle After Another may not be DiCaprio’s highest-grossing opening, but cracking his top ten is no small feat given the compeтιтion in his filmography. Surpᴀssing The Wolf of Wall Street and placing behind Killers of the Flower Moon shows that his partnership with Anderson has struck gold. This performance also shows that prestige films can thrive in theaters with the right combination of star power and filmmaker.