Who Cares If ‘One Battle After Another’ Loses Some Money?

A box-office hit can reshape careers, studios, stars or even entire genres; the same is true for a flop. That’s why entertainment journalists spend Sundays crunching the data: It’s the industry’s version of reading tea leaves, trying to glimpse which kinds of movies will — or won’t — get made in the months and years ahead.

When the numbers land somewhere in between, the analysis gets murkier. Such is the case with the opening weekend for One Battle After Another, the new Paul Thomas Anderson action/drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It earned $22.4 million domestically and another $26.1 million internationally. It’s an impressive global total but a long way from profitability for the film, which cost roughly $130 million in production expenses, plus $70 million in marketing. So, as Variety notes, “Box office experts are mixed on what to make of those initial results.” Hear me out, though: What if it’s actually okay if One Battle After Another is a commercial disappointment?