Heading into Easter weekend, the opening projections for Ryan Coogler’s Sinners were all over the place. Warner Bros. stuck to $35 million-$40 million, while tracking services showed the supernatural vampire pic coming in as high as $45 million. Others predicted north of $50 million.
Lost in the conversation was the fact that Sinners is an R-rated period horror movie featuring a mostly Black cast at a time when the Trump administration is punishing companies and institutions that refuse to abandon their commitments to diversity and inclusion. Nonetheless, Sinners more than found salvation at the Easter box office, toppling A Minecraft Movie in an unexpected upset with a $48 million domestic debut, thanks to powerful word of mouth. It’s also another win for embattled Warners movie chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy (the studio is also home of Minecraft).
Set in 1932, Coogler’s fifth feature stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as identical twin entrepreneurs known as Smoke and Stack. Having survived the World War I trenches and Chicago gangland, the brothers return after seven years to their segregated Mississippi Delta hometown, Clarksdale. They are flush with cash and have a truckload of liquor and a plan to open a juke joint. However, they encounter unexpected horrors.
The movie’s much-debated production budget of $90 million before marketing has prompted some in the media to label Sinners a sure money-loser. But one veteran financing source says it’s premature to make such a prediction, and that there could even be a sequel down the road based on the outstanding reaction. (On Monday, Sinners grossed a stellar $7.8 million for a domestic box office cume of $55.8 million. That’s not far behind the $9.9 million earned by Minecraft on its first Monday.)
Says Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, “Sinners is a case study in how a purposeful marketing and distribution strategy backed up by a world class movie can then be carried forward by the most powerful marketing ambassadors on the planet: the moviegoers themselves.”
He’s right. Not many movies are embraced to the same degree by critics and audiences; Sinners is a notable exception. Here’s why.
