Paul Thomas Anderson‘s epic, One Battle After Another, has been showered with glowing praise from critics, which currently boasts a towering 96% on the Tomatometer and a 95 rating on Metacritic. However, the critical prowess on major review-aggregator websites doesn’t always paint the general audience consensus, which is often derived from Cinemascore.
Fortunately, it doesn’t seem there’s any divide between fans and critics, as the movie has opened to an A Cinemascore, a very rare feat, especially when it comes to a rated-R release, and a first for PTA’s career.
One Battle After Another CinemaScore Marks a Major Milestone for PTA
Despite being celebrated as one of the most renowned auteurs in the business, Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies aren’t notable for their mainstream appeal, which explains why he hasn’t been a major box office draw in the past. However, One Battle After Another not only marks the director’s first mainstream release, but it’s also his first movie to achieve an A Cinemascore.
Prestige movies, entirely driven by an artistic vision, rarely receive an impeccable Cinemascore. This isn’t surprising, as the general audience tends to crave crowd-pleasing experiences, which movies like There Will Be Blood and Leonardo DiCaprio‘s previous prestige release, Killers of the Flower Moon, don’t excel at.
But the new PTA movie, even though 170 minutes long, seems to have scratched that itch, which, like its Cinemascore, is a very rare occurrence. More importantly, a high cinema score often reflects greatly on the movie’s box office, and given the budget of PTA’s epic, it can certainly benefit from some good word of mouth.
Why Cinemascore Carries More Weight Than Other Metrics
While Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic can give a general overview of the movie’s quality, even though the former’s scaling remains somewhat controversial, it doesn’t always equate to great box office legs.
On the flip side, Cinemascore accounts for audiences’ satisfaction, generally measured through surveys that are conducted during opening nights across several theatre chains. The scores, ranging from A+ to F, reflect how satisfied the audience was and how likely they are to recommend the film.
Although the new movie is eyeing a $21M domestic opening, movies with an A CinemaScore or higher tend to experience low drops from weekend to weekend and a potential 3x or higher multiplier from their opening. Considering Leonardo DiCaprio has stressed that box office remains an important facet of the movie amid its critical hights, Cinemascore is the most efficient indicator to judge how general moviegoers are receiving it.
Even though profitability might still be distant, given its enormous budget, following its A Cinemascore, the box office returns could be decent as far as prestige releases with a 170-minute runtime go. And with the movie being a potential frontrunner at the Oscars, it’s a big win for both PTA and WB.
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One Battle After Another is currently running in theatres (USA).
