Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | October 6, 2025
Not content with breaking records on Spotify and in record sales with her newest album launch, Taylor Swift is taking on the box office. The Life of a Showgirl has a suitably cinematic hook in its aesthetic, so why not make the album launch party a movie of sorts? It certainly brought in big business, indeed, the biggest of the weekend. It grossed $33 million from 3,702 locations, which was three times the weekend revenue of One Battle After Another. It seems doubtful that it’ll have staying power now that everyone has the album. Maybe Taylor will release a ton of variants exclusive to certain cinemas. Nope, please don’t steal that idea.
Speaking of One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film is now at $42.7 million domestically, and it has taken in $101 million worldwide. That’s a new record for PTA. Not bad for a movie that Warner Bros. seemed determined to ignore.
The Smashing Machine is Dwayne Johnson’s much-vaunted awards season vehicle. It’s an A24 title that received a wide release immediately, no limited rollout to drum up buzz. The Rock is the buzz. But are audiences just not into this new step in his career? Despite a hefty marketing campaign and the presence of a genuine mega-star, the film only grossed $6 million from 3,345 locations. I could see this one building up solid word of mouth since it’s an appealing film, but competition is about to get tougher in awards season. Dwayne, take my advice: Put Southland Tales back in cinemas. Instant goldmine.
We got a few varied re-releases this past weekend. In preparation for the third movie in the Na’vi universe, Avatar: The Way of Water returned to cinemas and earned $3.194 million. It’s currently the third-highest-grossing film of all time, with $2.33 billion to its name. I imagine Disney wants it to get close to the $2.79 billion that Avengers: Endgame grossed, but that seems highly unlikely to me. James Cameron, you know what you have to do.
Also re-released into theatres? Casper. Yup, that one. The friendly ghost. Sure. Why not? Nostalgia exists for everything. Certainly, some people wanted to see this, since it earned $750,000 from 1,100 locations. For the cooler kids, there was the re-release of Perfect Blue, the legendary anime by Satoshi Kon, which took in $711,695 from 471 theatres.
Back to new releases. Good Boy was initially supposed to get a limited release, but after going viral, it earned a wide release. What a good doggo. It barked up $2.25 million for its troubles.
Horror movie Bone Lake made $828,560 from 1,059 places. Daniel Day-Lewis’s grand return to cinema, Anemone (directed by his son), grossed $700,000. The totally-not-relevant documentary Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 made $26,561 from one theatre. The fantasy-tinged drama The Ice Tower took in $8,000 from three stops.
This coming week sees the release of Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt and Channing Tatum’s dramedy Roofman.
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.
