Why did the most popular movie fail this year?

You can’t risk this kind of long-term strategy unless your other films are profitable, of course, but fortunately for Warner, some of the biggest moneymakers of 2025 are on the company’s slate: in addition to Sinners, these include Minecraft, Final Destination: Bloodlines, F1, Superman, Webs, and Conjuring: The Last Rites. If one battle after another wasn’t winning, well, it still cemented Warner’s reputation as an auteur-friendly studio, forged a relationship with Anderson, and gave them a well-respected film that would be an awards season favorite. Plus, as Blaisdell points out, “they had Leonardo DiCaprio come to their Christmas party.”

So was the studio right to bankroll one fight after another? “Given everything they’ve been through this year, it’s a no-brainer,” Lucas Shaw said on the latest edition of the film industry podcast, The Town. “You have a film by a great contemporary filmmaker that got good reviews, and now with Sinners you have two strong Oscar contenders.” Paul Thomas Anderson [who has never won an Academy Award] If you manage to get his Oscar, you consider that a win and decide that your other successes have covered it. Look, if you’re running a movie studio, you’ve got to be able to make some big changes.”

The whole case has echoes of Seth Rogen’s Apple TV comedy series The Studio about Hollywood executives. One episode is devoted to a studio executive’s desperate attempt to get someone to thank him on stage at the Golden Globes — the hilarious suggestion that filmmaking isn’t just about the bottom line. There’s also the scene in which Catherine O’Hara’s character sums up her experience running a studio. “The job makes you stressed and paranoid and miserable. But when it all comes together and you make a good movie, it’s good forever.”

A studio may see Hollywood through a rosy lens, but if there are still Hollywood executives willing to spend more than $130 million to make a “good movie,” that’s something to be happy about. Maybe one battle after another wasn’t such a big gamble. If you make a cartoon, a superhero movie, or a video game adaptation that flops — like Smurfs, or The Flash, or Borderlands — you won’t be able to console yourself with talk of art and prestige. But if you put your money into a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, no matter what happens at the box office, you’ll still get a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Chances are you will be proud of it. In some ways, it’s a safe bet for a studio executive to make.