Movie Monday: ‘One Battle After Another’ Fights Its Way to the Top

How many battles does Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson face in One Battle After Another?

Well, there’s his battle with drug and alcohol addiction. And then there are his literal battles—the ones that end in a lot of blood loss. Whether or not he wins either of those, there’s no denying that he came out on top in the movie’s weekend box office battle. The film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, gained $22.4 million in the U.S. and $26.1 million abroad.

From there, the box office veers sharply from a movie about a former terrorist to a movie about a girl who plays with sentient cat dolls. Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie littered its pockets with $13.7 million. While not purr-fect, it’s good enough for second place. Worldwide, the film pounced on a $19.4 million cume.

Just as The Conjuring franchise continues to find ways to revive itself for another movie, so too does The Conjuring: Last Rites continue to find ways to haunt the box office. It proved a difficult spirit to exorcise, maintaining possession of third place. It earned $6.9 million domestically, bringing its stateside earnings to $161.5 million. That makes it the franchise’s highest-grossing film. Worldwide, it has earned $435.9 million.

But if you prefer your horror movie franchises to be a bit less supernatural in nature, you might find yourself watching the fourth-place winner, The Strangers: Chapter 2. It chased down $5.9 million domestically in its opening weekend. The first film in this franchise (2008’s The Strangers) took in $21 million from fewer theaters in its opening weekend. And even this movie’s relaunched prequel (The Strangers: Chapter 1) snatched $11.8 million, nearly double Chapter 2’s opening take. Suffice it to say this sequel’s future isn’t filled with sunshine and palm trees. (Get it? Because “Tamara” is a prominent name in the movie, which can translate to “palm tree.” A commenter last week said my jokes haven’t been funny, so I’m trying here.)

As for fifth place, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba—The Movie: Infinity Castle refused to fall off the box office leaderboard—if only to force me to type its annoyingly long name one more time. It acquired an additional $4.9 million from American audiences, which brings its domestic cume to $118.2 million. Of course, its true audience remains overseas: Internationally, the anime sits on a cool $487.2 million, which brings its worldwide total to $605.4 million.

Notably, Him, the football horror winner from last week, discovered that it was not, in fact, “him.” It collapsed from first place all the way to sixth, only earning $3.7 million this week. That brings its domestic cume to $20.8 million.

Looking down the list, Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut film, Eleanor the Great, found itself in 11^th place. It earned $937,000. Perhaps it’d be more aptly called “Eleanor the Alright.”