Warner Bros. might potentially have another problem on its hands. Paul Thomas Anderson’s new feature One Battle After Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio, the culmination of DiCaprio’s desire to work with Anderson. So far, so good. Then there was a test screening in Arizona last week.
With a $140 million budget, the biggest for an Anderson project so far, it will need to find a solid audience to turn a profit. The problem is that, according to a report from PuckNews , the output from the test screening was that the movie is simply too weird for audiences.
The report uses the words “extremely eccentric and bizarre” and states that the studio is now concerned even the most ardent DiCaprio fans will not engage with it.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies are not massive money spinners at the best of times, with his highest-grossing movie, There Will Be Blood, not even breaking the $75 million mark at the box office.
The report says Warner’s has such cold feet now that it may well move out of a summer release slot and shift it to a more “arthouse” slot towards the end of the year.
One Battle After Another went under the working title The Battle for Baktan Cross and is loosely based on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland. Anderson used Pynchon’s work as the basis for Inherent Vice.
Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor all co-star alongside DiCaprio.