Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was released two Fridays ago to fantastic reviews and trade paper disgust. It’s not that the trade papers had particular feelings about Sinners as a film, they were loudly angry that Coogler successfully negotiated the kind of deal that white auteurs would receive, notably that Coogler gets a percentage of the gross (a front-end deal rather than a backend deal) and that ownership of Sinners reverts to Coogler after 25 years. Hollywood’s white gatekeepers were furious! The trade papers were desperate to make it sound like Sinners would never recover Warner Bros’ investment and that WB was foolish for giving Coogler that deal. Well, it’s taken less than two weeks for the American audience to show Hollywood that we love original horror stories and we want Coogler to keep making these kinds of movies.
The weekend box office is on fire, with ticket sales up more than 120 percent over the same frame last year. The blaze is led by Warner Bros.’ Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. Heading into its sophomore outing, the film was expected to compete with Ben Affleck-starrer The Accountant 2 for the top spot with anywhere from $20 million to $25 million.
But the supernatural period vampire pic continues to defy all the odds and easily stayed No. 1 domestically with a phenomenal $45 million to boast one of the smallest drops in history for a movie playing outside of the year-end holidays, or 6 percent off from its $48 million opening weekend. Put another way, Sinners boasts the smallest second-weekend decline for any film opening north of $40 million since 2009’s Avatar and the smallest ever for an R-rated horror title. That puts the film’s domestic tally through Sunday at $122.5 million and an astounding $161.6 million globally. At this pace, there’s no telling how far in the black the $90 million movie will end up after some naysayers labeled it a money-loser even before it had a chance to bare its teeth.
Graced with virtually perfect audience scores and the best reviews of filmmaker Coogler‘s already acclaimed career, Sinners has transformed into the rare title that has become a runaway water-cooler sensation in a major victory for Warners’ movie chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca. The pic is broadening out in term of ethnicity and gender, according to the studio. One example: females now make up half the audience, whereas males made up 56 percent of all opening weekend ticket buyers.
Revenge of the Sith edged past The Accountant with an estimated $25.2 million to come in second and score one of the top openings ever for a rerelease. The crownholder continues to belong to 1977’s Star Wars, which grossed $35.9 million when it hit theaters again in 1997, not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.
Notice how THR completely ignores any discussion of The Accountant 2 and the budget for that sequel – it cost $80 million to make a sequel to a Ben Affleck film which no one was really asking for. That’s only $10 million less than Sinners’ budget, and it’s unlikely that The Accountant 2 will break even long-term. Yet Sinners was declared a money-loser as it premiered, and the trade papers are still trying to find a negative angle on its success.
Also, I said this on social media yesterday, but it definitely feels like the white audience really wanted to see Sinners, but they waited a week out of respect – Tom Cruise and Kevin Bacon both posted on social media this weekend about how much they loved the film.
Congratulations Ryan, Michael, and to the entire cast and crew. Must see in a cinema and stay through the end credits! pic.twitter.com/rQ54y74j2e
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) April 27, 2025
I love to see movie stars gush about other people’s movies #Sinners pic.twitter.com/DHdZ4uwDGz
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Physical Media Forever
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.
