One Battle After Another is coming toFortnite. If you don’t know what One Battle After Another is… well, that’s probably why it’s coming to Fortnite.
Set to hit theaters on September 26, One Battle After Another is the new movie from acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson. His sophomore feature, Boogie Nights, is one of the defining movies of the ’90s. His period drama There Will Be Blood is frequently cited as one of the best films of the 21st century — including scoring third place onthe recent New York Times list. And Phantom Thread, his 2017 romance about a fashion designer in 1950s London, is one of my favorite movies of all time. On a personal level, I’m very excited for One Battle After Another, and given Anderson’s pedigree, Oscar voters surely are, too.
Paul Thomas Anderson Goes Big, Stays Weird
But One Battle After Another isn’t a typical Anderson film. The auteur has never made a movie that costmore than $40 million, andhis highest-grossing movie is still There Will Be Blood which topped out at $76.2 million worldwide. He’s a critical and awards darling, but he’s never been an especially commercial filmmaker.
With this movie, though, Andersonreportedly commanded a $140 million budget, lined up a big movie star in Leonardo DiCaprio, and has made what looks like it could be a fun action-packed thriller. Again, itlookslike it could be a fun action-packed thriller, but it’s loosely based on Vineland, an esoteric and political novel by reclusive author Thomas Pynchon. The trailers are awesome, but there’s a very real chance that it ends up being too weird for a mainstream audience. On the other hand, it could really deliver on its pyrotechnics and big stunts and be a surprise breakout hit.
It seems like WB isn’t quite sure how to sell that mixture of tones. But after a string of hits this year —A Minecraft Movie,Sinners,Final Destination Bloodlines, F1, andSuperman— it seems like the studio might have confidence to pull it off. Adding the game to Fortnite seems like as sure a way as possible to reach younger audiences.
Though, it’s an open question whether they’ll even be able to see the film. The last time PTA made a feature film that wasn’t rated R was… never, he’s never made a movie that wasn’t rated R.
One Battle (Royale) After Another
Epic stipulates that creators must use that specific bit of boilerplate when they promote their user-created Fortnite island, so it’s likely that Warner Bros. built tie-in content in Fortnite. I foundan exampleof The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon using the same language when it partnered with Samsung on a Fortnite recreation of the show’s Rockefeller Center studio. It’s not unlike theBiden campaign making an informative Animal Crossing: New Horizons island back in 2020. So, don’t expect to see Leo skins in the wild, at least not yet. More likely, the collab will probably offer up a themed world you may visit.
It’s an interesting gambit, and highlights just how difficult it is to reach audiences in 2025. There is no monoculture anymore so, while TV ads were effective in the ’90s, the audience is so splintered now that it’s tough to know what can help a movie cut through the noise.
Take on the Hot Ones gauntlet? Kick it with the dirtbag leftists of Chapo Trap House? Shoot the sh*t with Theo Von? Go conspiracy for conspiracy with Joe Rogan? Pay for an expensive Super Bowl ad? Sit down with Jimmy Kimmell? All of the above? Nobody knows what works anymore, and One Battle After Another is trying to navigate the same labyrinth that every movie must navigate in 2025.
