‘One Battle After Another’ movie filmed in Sacramento. Did the city benefit?
Jennifer West had no doubt in her mind that the film “One Battle After Another” would thrive during awards season.
West, film commissioner for the city of Sacramento, attended a special screening Monday at the Esquire IMAX Theatre of the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed thriller, which opens in theaters Friday. The film, based on the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel “Vineland,” was partly shot in the Sacramento area in early 2024.
“Two hours and 50 minutes went by so quickly,” West said. “It kept you engaged the entire time.”
“One Battle After Another” is far from the first film to be shot locally. But with a budget estimated as high as $175 million and a star-studded cast headed by Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, it might be the most high-profile film ever made with Sacramento ties. The question now is: What might it do for the city?
Shooting the film in Sacramento
The production team of “One Battle After Another” had been looking for a shooting location with brutalist architecture for its opening sequence.
The team considered Fresno and might have also looked at Bakersfield, according to Michael Glaser, supervising location manager for the film. Eventually, the team chose Sacramento, where much of downtown still hearkens to the mid-20th century with block upon block of drab government buildings. This downtown hadn’t been featured in many films, either.
“We were kind of like a kid with a new toy,” Glaser said. “Because there (were) all these streets and all this texture of Sacramento… to explore and put on film.”
Glaser said that Anderson, who was unavailable for interview for this article, and production designer Florencia Martin even made a road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento after a potential location was spotted online.
After shooting elsewhere in Northern California in early 2024, the film’s production team descended on Sacramento. Influential locals welcomed the production with open arms. Glaser met Sacramento Kings chief operating officer Matina Kolokotronis, who a team spokesperson said was unavailable for comment.
“She was amazing,” Glaser said. “She opened so many doors for the production for us.”
Mike Testa, president & CEO of Visit Sacramento, which represents local hoteliers, helped the film rent space in a room at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center to review dailies, or results of daily shooting.
“They spent a lot of money in this market that benefited a lot of small businesses and benefited the city and the county as well,” Testa said. “So that’s always positive.”
West noted that the production spent $5.3 million in Sacramento, with 16 shooting days within city limits and 172 local hires who worked on “One Battle After Another.”
The film was a major event locally and stirred excitement among people hoping to catch a glimpse of talent.
At one point, the production was set to shoot an alley near the Esquire theater and Doug Link, its director, gave permission for cast and crew to use his bathrooms. Link opted to hold his bladder all day, plotting that if DiCaprio came in to use the restroom, he would sidle up and introduce himself.
“It ended up Leonardo wasn’t part of that shot that day,” Link said.
When he wasn’t filming, DiCaprio made it to local eateries, such as Mulvaney’s B&L. Michael Natusch, general manager of Echo & Rig, a steakhouse in the DoCo, got word through his staff that DiCaprio had come in for a weekday lunch. “He was all disguised,” Natusch said. “He had a wig on and sunglasses.”
Aside from DiCaprio, the film also stars Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn and Regina Hall, among others. Another member of the cast, Teyana Taylor, who was married to former Kings player Iman Shumpert from 2016 to 2024, attended multiple Kings games while the film was in-production and lit the beam after a win.
Recognizable Sacramento locations, such as the Tower Bridge, the Railyards and a county building downtown, are visible in trailers for the film. That said, the film itself isn’t set in Sacramento. Glaser said all of the film’s locations are fictionalized, with “One Battle After Another” having some science fiction elements.
“You’ll understand that you’re in Sacramento,” Glaser said. “But… you should be kind of glued to the story.”
Sometimes films are shot locally and meant to portray the Capital City, such as the Michael Angarano indie film “Sacramento” that opened in theaters earlier this year. But it isn’t unusual for films to have been shot here but wind up on-screen as something else.
The opening of “American Beauty” is meant to portray the suburbs of Chicago but is actually an aerial shot of east Sacramento. Old Sacramento doubled as Japan spanning the 1920s to 1950s in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” according to Bee coverage from 2005, months after local shooting occurred. Then there’s “Lucky Numbers,” a 2000 film starring about the Pennsylvania Lottery starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow that was shot locally.
For Tyler Semons, who lives in Curtis Park and did location work for “One Battle After Another,” the fact that Sacramento can stand in for other areas is a plus. “Sacramento can be anywhere in the U.S. because it does have that look,” Semons said. “And that will certainly draw in more productions.”
What the film could mean for Sacramento
West said the Esquire screening on Monday came together quickly, with invitations to local luminaries going out days before.
Initially, the screening was going to be packed. Some officials cancelled last-minute, such as Sacramento City Councilman Phil Pluckebaum, who said that something came up, a not-uncommon experience for a local leader.
West said Caity Maple was the only Sacramento city councilmember to attend the screening, though staff from Mayor Kevin McCarty’s office were there. Assistant City Manager Michael Jasso and Megan Van Voorhis, the city’s director of convention and cultural services were at the screening, too.
There was also hope of getting as many locals as possible involved in the film into the screening. But Warner Brothers Discovery, whose subsidiary is distributing the film, didn’t provide the names of all local production assistants who’d worked on the film. “It was kind of a kerfuffle to be honest,” West said.
Warner Brothers also did not make available a copy of the film for The Sacramento Bee to preview. Even without these promotional opportunities, “One Battle After Another” appears to be a hit, averaging 98% on Rotten Tomatoes through 138 reviews.
When the film got underway during the Esquire screening, Sacramento factored into the first 20-25 minutes. “It was great,” West said. “People were pointing and whispering.”
The film didn’t just offer local appeal, with West saying it had humor and that “people were laughing out loud.”
Testa also attended the screening and enjoyed the film. “From a movie standpoint, it’s incredibly entertaining,” Testa said. “I would be shocked if there weren’t some Oscar nominations for a couple of categories on it. It was that good.”
Films shot in the Sacramento area like “Lady Bird” have brought visitors to the area. Testa doesn’t expect similar results from “One Battle After Another.” “I don’t think this is necessarily a tourism driver,” Testa said. “I think it’s a great economic thing when we can have filming happen here.
Scott Ford, deputy director for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership said that local filming can bring indirect benefits. “Sometimes those are less tangible, but they can be exponentially powerful,” said Ford, who added that “One Battle After Another” had the potential to increase familiarity with Sacramento.
Maple said it was “amazing” to see Sacramento on the big screen. “When people think about film, they think about Hollywood and Los Angeles, maybe they think about parts of the country as well,” Maple said. “And I just think it’s really important for us in the city, to put ourselves on the map and to show... these film producers and directors that we’re open for business.”
West has worked to help the city pilot a program to incentivize film production, with a one-time allocation of $250,000 from Measure U to provide a rebate to a film production that spends more than $1 million locally.
She’s hopeful about what, she said, someone on a prospective film production could say: “If Paul Thomas Anderson filmed in Sacramento, we should absolutely check it out.”
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 9:53 AM.
