(Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)

“One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s widely acclaimed American epic of rebellion and resistance, opened with $22.4 million in ticket sales from North American theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Anderson’s ultracontemporary opus signifies a major gamble by Warner Bros. With “One Battle After Another,” the studio is making a $130 million-plus bet that audiences would come out for 170-minute-long powerhouse drama from one of cinema’s most celebrated auteurs the way they usually only turn up for a franchise or superhero movie.

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Anderson, many critics said, delivered the movie of year. “One Battle After Another,” starring Leonardo D

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