“Sinners,” an R-rated original vampire thriller from director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan, topped the box office in its opening weekend despite steep competition from “A Minecraft Movie.”
Boosted by stellar reviews and Coogler and Jordan’s popularity, “Sinners” collected a solid $45.6 million from 3,308 North American theaters. Those ticket sales mark the biggest debut for an original film since Jordan Peele’s “Us” opened to $71 million in 2019. But Warner Bros. spent a staggering $90 million to produce “Sinners” (before factoring in global marketing expenses), so profitability remains a question mark.
At the international box office, “Sinners” added another $15.4 million for a global tally of $61 million.
“This is an excellent opening for a period horror film. It should have a good run now,” says David A. Gross, who runs the FranchiseRe movie consulting firm. However, he adds, “the enormous production cost is going to cast a long shadow and set a high bar to profitability.”
“A Minecraft Movie,” also from Warner Bros., was expected to be No. 1 for the third consecutive weekend but settled for second with a mighty $41.3 million. The PG video game adaptation, starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, has become a smash success with $344 million domestically and $720.8 million globally. It’s currently the highest grossing Hollywood movie of the year, ahead of Disney and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” ($410 million globally).
“Sinners,” in which Jordan plays identical twins Smoke and Stack, takes place in the 1930s as the brothers return home to the South and open a juke joint… only for vampires to descend on the small town. Audiences dug the supernatural horror film, which earned an “A” grade on CinemaScore exit polls. Reviews for “Sinners” have been excellent as well (the film boasts a near-perfect 98% average on Rotten Tomatoes), all of which bodes well for word of mouth.
Jordan has starred in several of Coogler’s films, including “Creed” and “Black Panther.” The duo had already demonstrated a flare for knowing what’ll sell tickets at multiplexes, but “Sinners,” as their first original swing, establishes them as the rare Hollywood talent who can fill auditoriums based on the strength of their names. Warner Bros. was so keen to work with Coogler that, in addition to plunking down a massive budget, the studio hammered out a rare agreement for the filmmaker to eventually own the film rights for “Sinners” after 25 years. (Not even Steven Spielberg gets that treatment for his movies.)
In third place, “The King of Kings” collected a huge $17 million from 3,535 cinemas in its second weekend of release, a barely-there 10% decline from its debut. Angel Studios is backing the animated faith-based film about the life of Jesus, which benefitted from the Easter holiday weekend. So far, the film — featuring a voice cast of Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill — has generated $45 million domestically.
Disney’s vigilante spy film “The Amateur” dropped to No. 4 with $6.8 million from 3,400 venues. The film, in which Rami Malek plays a CIA analyst out for blood, has grossed just $27 million domestically and $64 million worldwide after two weekends on the big screen. Against a $60 million price tag, “The Amateur” is shaping up to be the second theatrical misfire for Disney following “Snow White,” which has stalled with $184 million against a $250 million budget.
A24’s combat thriller “Warfare” rounded out the top five with $4.8 million from 2,670 North American theaters. The film has grossed $17.8 million after two weekends of release, a great result for an indie. However, “Warfare” cost $20 million, and since theater owners get to keep roughly 50% of ticket sales, the movie needs to keep fighting to get into the black.
Elsewhere at the box office, Bleecker Street’s “The Wedding Banquet,” a modern retelling of Ang Lee’s 1993 queer comedy of errors, fizzled in its debut with $922,906 from 1,139 North American theaters.
More to come…
