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Paul Thomas Anderson movies in order

Ten films in thirty years, and almost all of them are about somebody who needs something badly.

Updated 6 August 2026 · 10 titles tracked

Nothing connects, so order is free. What matters is not entering through the wrong door — and with this filmography the wrong door is Inherent Vice, which is deliberately impossible to follow, or Magnolia, which is three hours long and asks for a lot of goodwill up front.

Roughly half the films are set in the San Fernando Valley, where he grew up. The other half are period pieces about power. Both halves are about need.

PTA films, in a suggested starting order

An entry path rather than release order. Toggle on the filmography page.

  1. 1There Will Be Blood2007 · Major work
  2. 2Boogie Nights1997 · Major work
  3. 3Licorice Pizza2021 · Major work
  4. 4One Battle After Another2025 · Major work
  5. 5Phantom Thread2017 · Major work
  6. 6Punch-Drunk Love2002 · Major work
  7. 7Magnolia1999 · Major work
  8. 8The Master2012 · Major work
  9. 9Hard Eight1996
  10. 10Inherent Vice2014
Open the full Paul Thomas Anderson filmography

Start with There Will Be Blood or Boogie Nights

There Will Be Blood (2007) is the consensus masterpiece — Daniel Day-Lewis as an oil prospector consuming everything within reach, opening with fifteen near-silent minutes. It is the easiest of his films to admire.

Boogie Nights (1997) is the easiest to enjoy: the porn industry from 1977 to 1984, told as a family drama. He was twenty-seven when he made it.

Pick based on which of those two sentences appeals more.

The warm ones

Licorice Pizza (2021) is loose, episodic and by a distance his warmest film. Punch-Drunk Love (2002) is ninety-five minutes of Adam Sandler played completely straight, and unlike anything else he has made.

Phantom Thread (2017) looks forbidding — a 1950s couturier, Day-Lewis's announced final performance — and turns out to be very funny once you work out what kind of relationship it is describing.

The demanding ones

Magnolia (1999) runs 188 minutes across nine intersecting lives in one day, and ends in a way that people either accept completely or reject completely. The Master (2012) was shot in 65mm, concerns a drifter and the leader of a new religion, and resolves almost nothing on purpose.

Inherent Vice (2014) is Pynchon filmed faithfully, which means the plot is genuinely not followable. That is the joke. It is a bad first film and a rewarding fifth one.

The debut, and the newest

Hard Eight (1996) was taken off him and re-cut by the financiers. It is minor, and Philip Baker Hall is superb in it.

One Battle After Another (2025) is the biggest and fastest thing he has ever made — DiCaprio as a burnt-out revolutionary, and by some distance his most commercial film.

Common questions

What order should I watch Paul Thomas Anderson movies in?

Any order — none connect. Start with There Will Be Blood or Boogie Nights, then Licorice Pizza, One Battle After Another and Phantom Thread. Leave Inherent Vice until last.

Which Paul Thomas Anderson film should I watch first?

There Will Be Blood if you want the masterpiece, Boogie Nights if you want the most entertaining. Both are better entry points than Magnolia or Inherent Vice.

How many films has Paul Thomas Anderson directed?

Ten features, from Hard Eight (1996) to One Battle After Another (2025).

Are any Paul Thomas Anderson films connected?

No. There are recurring actors and a recurring setting — the San Fernando Valley — but no shared characters or continuity.