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Cousin Hilda outside in front of a wood fort in Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme.

Published Jan 23, 2026, 9:50 PM EST

Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Swing and a miss > measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him).

While the newly released Prime Video hit The Tank demolishes competition on streaming, another film set in the same decade is making a sudden resurgence on the PVOD charts. Director Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme has nothing in common, tonally speaking, with The Tank. But in its own way, the movie examines the aftermath of global conflict — only this time, it's through the eyes of a father looking to reconnect with his daughter. Incidentally, the movie shares this theme with another 2025 release, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, which is doing stupendously well on streaming as well. Furthermore, both One Battle After Another and The Phoenician Scheme feature Benicio del Toro in primary roles.

According to FlixPatrol, The Phoenician Scheme was among the most-watched movies on the global HBO Max charts this week, when the leader board was topped by One Battle After Another. The espionage-laced comedy drama also trailed Sydney Sweeney's horror film Immaculate, the sci-fi reboot Alien: Romulus, and the recent live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon. Having premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, The Phoenician Scheme was given a platform release by Focus Features domestically, which is typical of Anderson's movies. However, this time, the buzz simply refused to build, and the film concluded its run with just $40 million at the worldwide box office, against a reported budget of $30 million. This makes The Phoenician Scheme Anderson's lowest-grossing movie since The Darjeeling Limited, which made $35 million worldwide in 2007.

'The Phoenician Scheme' Earned Positive Reviews

The Phoenician Scheme featured one of Anderson's most sprawling ensemble casts, including Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Cera, Rupert Friend, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, and as the co-lead alongside Del Toro, newcomer Mia Threapleton. The film opened to mostly positive reviews, and is now sitting at a "certified fresh" 77% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, "A caper made with all the intricacy of a Rube Goldberg machine, The Phoenician Scheme doesn't deviate from Wes Anderson's increasingly ornate style but delivers the formula with mannered delicacy." You can watch The Phoenician Scheme at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.