Box office
Phantom Thread grossed $21.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $26.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $47.8 million, against a production budget of $35 million.[5]
After three weeks in limited release, where it made a total of $2.8 million, the film was added to 834 theaters on January 19, 2018 (for a total of 896), and grossed $3.8 million over the weekend, finishing 12th at the box office.[33] The subsequent weekend, following the announcement of its six Oscar nominations, and having added 125 theaters, the film grossed $2.9 million.[34]
Critical response
Phantom Thread received widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91%, based on 358 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Phantom Thread's finely woven narrative is filled out nicely by humor, intoxicating romantic tension, and yet another impressively committed performance from Daniel Day-Lewis."[35] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 51 critics’ reviews.[36]
The A.V. Club's A.A. Dowd gave the film an A−, calling it a "charitable and even poignantly hopeful take on the subject [of being in a relationship with an artist]" and wrote that "in the simple, refined timelessness of its technique, Phantom Thread is practically a love letter to classic aesthetic values—cinematic, sartorial, or otherwise".[37] The Observer critic Mark Kermode gave the film five out of five, describing it as "a deftly spun yarn" and praised Daniel Day-Lewis's performance, calling his role as a "perfect fit [in a] beautifully realised tale of 50s haute couture".[38]
Christy Lemire of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association placed the film second on her list of ten best films of 2017, describing it as "captivating" and "one of Paul Thomas Anderson's absolute best", as well as singling out Jonny Greenwood's score as "intoxicating".[39] Michael Wood, writing for the London Review of Books, saw the film as unsuccessfully referencing other gothic films such as Rebecca from the 1940s. He also wrote: "Can we imagine a long future for this couple? The film can, and does, but the picture is so hackneyed – pram, baby, walk in the park – that it has to be a dream, or an irony."[40]
Top ten lists
Phantom Thread was listed on many critics' top ten lists for 2017.[41]
- 1st – Marlow Stern, The Daily Beast
- 1st – Ben Kenigsberg, RogerEbert.com
- 2nd – Sasha Stone, Awards Daily
- 2nd – Alison Willmore, BuzzFeed
- 2nd – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com
- 3rd – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
- 3rd – Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com
- 4th – Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
- 4th – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
- 5th – Eric Kohn, IndieWire
- 5th – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
- 5th – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
- 5th – A.A. Dowd & Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The A.V. Club
- 6th – Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
- 6th – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
- 6th – A. O. Scott, The New York Times
- 6th – Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
- 8th – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
- 8th – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush
- 8th – Emily Yoshida, New York
- 9th – Christopher Orr, The Atlantic
- 9th – Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor
- 10th – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
- 10th – David Edelstein, New York
- 10th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Ty Burr, The Boston Globe
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Dana Stevens, Slate
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
