The first few days of Hollywood’s year-end honors have already made it quite evident that “One Battle After Another” by Paul Thomas Anderson is the leading contender for the Academy Award. If there was any doubt about this, it has been made abundantly clear.
The 35th Gotham Awards were held on Monday, and “One Battle After Another” was awarded the prize for best film. According to the New York Film Critics Circle, it was awarded the title of finest film on Tuesday. At the National Board of Review honors, which were held on Wednesday, it was a resounding success, winning honors for best film, best director for Anderson, and acting awards for Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, and Chase Infiniti, who was a promising rookie.
You may anticipate hearing this pun rather frequently: one award after another.
“In all honesty, I was not expecting this,” Anderson said while he was at the Gothams. “I began to believe that I was completely unaware of what was taking place.”
Anderson may be able to make this statement for the very first and very last time this awards season.
It is safe to say that “One Battle After Another,” a film about political resistance in the face of ongoing tyranny that tells the story of a father and daughter, has firmly established itself as the film of the moment. With an opening sequence that depicts a raid at an immigrant detention facility, Anderson’s masterwork has hit critics and moviegoers alike for its contemporary relevance in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. The scene depicts a raid on a facility that houses immigrants. Even those who oppose it, like conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, predict the film will “win all of the Academy Awards.”
Despite this, Anderson’s film is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to the Academy Awards. It is a release that has received positive reviews but was not shown at any film festivals. A high-budget studio film that was not successful in the box office. If “One Battle After Another” were to win the Oscars on March 15, it would become one of the few films that have ever been financial failures yet received the most prestigious award in the film industry.
Increasingly, smaller films have been awarded the title of best picture. This includes independent films such as “The Hurt Locker,” “Moonlight,” and “Nomadland,” which have received many accolades but have not made much money at the box office. The film industry in Hollywood has long since been accustomed to recognizing films that operate mostly outside of its franchise-obsessed mainstream market. At the same time, the concept of what defines a best-picture movie has become more malleable. Traditional ideas about what constitutes Oscar material have been challenged by films such as “Parasite,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and “Anora,” which was the most recent winner.
Nevertheless, even the most modest Oscar winners have turned out to be commercially successful. “CODA,” the winner of the pandemic-era 2022 competition that went directly to streaming, was a huge success for Apple TV, which was only in its infancy at the time. Throughout its history, Hollywood has had a tendency to reward victors.
There is a distinct difference between “one battle after another” and other phrases. Because it has a production expense of at least $130 million (some rumors have it considerably higher) and another $70 million in marketing costs, it will need to have an incredible after-theater life in order to be profitable. For an adult-oriented, R-rated, auteur-driven film that is nearly three hours long, the Warner Bros. movie has grossed a total of $70.6 million domestically and $131.6 million worldwide so far. These are impressive amounts.
“One Battle After Another” is expected to suffer a loss of $100 million, according to an earlier estimate from Variety; however, Warner Bros. has refuted this figure. In spite of the fact that this is an overly harsh term, “One Battle After Another” could be considered the first film to win the award for best picture because of the discrepancy.
We still have a long way to go before the awards season begins. This week’s awards are unrelated to the voters. There are a few competitors that have not yet been released in theaters, such as “Marty Supreme,” which is produced by A24. A few others, such as “Hamnet” from Focus Features, are just about to arrive. The film “Sinners,” directed by Ryan Coogler and produced by Warner Bros., is receiving a lot of support and may become the most difficult opponent for “One Battle After Another.” The 12th of December will see the return of both films to IMAX theaters.
A bottom line that is in the red, however, is a particularly remarkable burden this autumn. With the exception of the blockbuster releases of “Zootopia 2” and “Wicked: For Good,” waves of films that were supposed to be contenders for awards, such as “The Smashing Machine,” “Roofman,” and “Christy,” have failed to attract enough theatergoers to warrant their consideration. Due to the fact that a broad variety of candidates have been going through a challenging decline, “One Battle After Another” has established itself as a tremendously successful film in comparison.
The fact that it requires a significant amount of money to produce is, in fact, the most significant financial disadvantage that it possesses. The high cost of “One Battle After Another” could even be considered a badge of pride, given how few similar films are produced, especially with such budgets. It is a film that, regardless of whether it wins, loses, or draws, is engaged in a battle for a kind of filmmaking that is currently under attack. “Viva la revolution!” as Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Bob Ferguson would exclaim.
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