diff --git a/readthedocs/doc_builder/backends/sphinx.py b/readthedocs/doc_builder/backends/sphinx.py
index 0c1a409c520..43778e31441 100644
--- a/readthedocs/doc_builder/backends/sphinx.py
+++ b/readthedocs/doc_builder/backends/sphinx.py
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@
 from readthedocs.projects.utils import safe_write
 
 from ..base import BaseBuilder
+from ..constants import PDF_RE
+from ..environments import BuildCommand, DockerBuildCommand
 from ..exceptions import BuildUserError
 from ..signals import finalize_sphinx_context_data
 
@@ -486,6 +488,30 @@ def _post_build(self):
             )
 
 
+class LatexBuildCommand(BuildCommand):
+
+    """Ignore LaTeX exit code if there was file output."""
+
+    def run(self):
+        super().run()
+        # Force LaTeX exit code to be a little more optimistic. If LaTeX
+        # reports an output file, let's just assume we're fine.
+        if PDF_RE.search(self.output):
+            self.exit_code = 0
+
+
+class DockerLatexBuildCommand(DockerBuildCommand):
+
+    """Ignore LaTeX exit code if there was file output."""
+
+    def run(self):
+        super().run()
+        # Force LaTeX exit code to be a little more optimistic. If LaTeX
+        # reports an output file, let's just assume we're fine.
+        if PDF_RE.search(self.output):
+            self.exit_code = 0
+
+
 class PdfBuilder(BaseSphinx):
 
     """Builder to generate PDF documentation."""
@@ -563,6 +589,11 @@ def _build_latexmk(self, cwd):
             cwd=self.absolute_host_output_dir,
         )
 
+        if self.build_env.command_class == DockerBuildCommand:
+            latex_class = DockerLatexBuildCommand
+        else:
+            latex_class = LatexBuildCommand
+
         cmd = [
             'latexmk',
             '-r',
@@ -579,18 +610,16 @@ def _build_latexmk(self, cwd):
             '-interaction=nonstopmode',
         ]
 
-        try:
-            cmd_ret = self.run(
-                *cmd,
-                cwd=self.absolute_host_output_dir,
-            )
-            self.pdf_file_name = f"{self.project.slug}.pdf"
-            return cmd_ret.successful
+        cmd_ret = self.build_env.run_command_class(
+            cls=latex_class,
+            cmd=cmd,
+            warn_only=True,
+            cwd=self.absolute_host_output_dir,
+        )
 
-        # Catch the exception and re-raise it with a specific message
-        except BuildUserError:
-            raise BuildUserError(BuildUserError.PDF_COMMAND_FAILED)
-        return False
+        self.pdf_file_name = f"{self.project.slug}.pdf"
+
+        return cmd_ret.successful
 
     def _post_build(self):
         """Internal post build to cleanup PDF output directory and leave only one .pdf file."""
diff --git a/readthedocs/doc_builder/constants.py b/readthedocs/doc_builder/constants.py
index d1400615bc8..94220e6511e 100644
--- a/readthedocs/doc_builder/constants.py
+++ b/readthedocs/doc_builder/constants.py
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 
 """Doc build constants."""
 
+import re
 
 import structlog
 from django.conf import settings
 
 log = structlog.get_logger(__name__)
 
+PDF_RE = re.compile("Output written on (.*?)")
+
 # Docker
 DOCKER_SOCKET = settings.DOCKER_SOCKET
 DOCKER_VERSION = settings.DOCKER_VERSION
diff --git a/readthedocs/doc_builder/exceptions.py b/readthedocs/doc_builder/exceptions.py
index be874b5073d..02ac48b3aa0 100644
--- a/readthedocs/doc_builder/exceptions.py
+++ b/readthedocs/doc_builder/exceptions.py
@@ -57,13 +57,6 @@ class BuildUserError(BuildBaseException):
         "Ensure your project is configured to use the output path "
         "'$READTHEDOCS_OUTPUT/html' instead."
     )
-    PDF_COMMAND_FAILED = gettext_noop(
-        "PDF generation failed. "
-        "The build log below contains information on what errors caused the failure. "
-        "Our code has recently changed to fail the entire build on PDF errors, "
-        "where we used to pass the build when a PDF was created. "
-        "Please contact us if you need help understanding this error."
-    )
 
 
 class BuildUserSkip(BuildUserError):
diff --git a/readthedocs/projects/tests/mockers.py b/readthedocs/projects/tests/mockers.py
index 8371f1b4143..471fc00008a 100644
--- a/readthedocs/projects/tests/mockers.py
+++ b/readthedocs/projects/tests/mockers.py
@@ -58,6 +58,13 @@ def _mock_artifact_builders(self):
             "project-slug.pdf",
         )
 
+        self.patches["builder.pdf.LatexBuildCommand.run"] = mock.patch(
+            "readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.LatexBuildCommand.run",
+            return_value=mock.MagicMock(output="stdout", successful=True),
+        )
+        # self.patches['builder.pdf.LatexBuildCommand.output'] = mock.patch(
+        #     'readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.LatexBuildCommand.output',
+        # )
         self.patches['builder.pdf.glob'] = mock.patch(
             'readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.glob',
             return_value=['output.file'],
diff --git a/readthedocs/projects/tests/test_build_tasks.py b/readthedocs/projects/tests/test_build_tasks.py
index 2b69d66cc53..16cff2d3170 100644
--- a/readthedocs/projects/tests/test_build_tasks.py
+++ b/readthedocs/projects/tests/test_build_tasks.py
@@ -723,18 +723,6 @@ def test_build_commands_executed(
                     bin_path=mock.ANY,
                 ),
                 mock.call("cat", "latexmkrc", cwd=mock.ANY),
-                mock.call(
-                    "latexmk",
-                    "-r",
-                    "latexmkrc",
-                    "-pdf",
-                    "-f",
-                    "-dvi-",
-                    "-ps-",
-                    "-jobname=project",
-                    "-interaction=nonstopmode",
-                    cwd=mock.ANY,
-                ),
                 # NOTE: pdf `mv` commands and others are not here because the
                 # PDF resulting file is not found in the process (`_post_build`)
                 mock.call(