It’s rare for the question to change in this way.
Usually, as an entertainment journalist, when I make small talk with someone they ask me what movie they should see. It’s a mark of something significant happening when the question is flipped to, “Have you seen this?” instead.
That’s what’s happening with Sinners.
It’s exciting when a movie hits in such a way that it becomes a phenomenon. The water cooler becomes a pool where critics, fans, and cultural commentators can swim together.
Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan as twins, is even more remarkable as this kind of word-of-mouth hit because of how peculiar it is. It’s a thriller. It’s a vampire movie. It’s a musical. It’s gory. It’s fun. It’s rated R. It’s weird.
This isn’t a film that’s a crowd-pleaser about the most popular doll in consumerist history, or featuring an epic set piece about the first detonation of the literal atomic bomb. It’s a strange bird, and that bird is flying high at the box office.
The film, set in the Mississippi delta, is about two brothers who try to start their lives again in their hometown, only for the juke joint they open to summon vampires from the past and future. It’s a riot.
I’m a bit confused why—given the records that this unique hit is breaking—headlines about it aren’t being blared through a Nicole Scherzinger-patented bullhorn and flashed in neon lights. In lieu of that, permit me to explain.
Sinners had the biggest opening for an original movie since 2019. In other words, since the Before Times, pre-COVID, when getting people to go see movies in theaters didn’t involve lifting them from their couches and Netflix subscriptions with a crane and physically moving them to the local AMC.
Its Easter weekend opening numbers were better than films you’d assume would do laps around a vampire movie at the box office: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Clash of the Titans. It’s also the first R-rated horror movie in 35 years to get an A rating from audiences on CinemaScore. Get Out didn’t achieve that. Neither did A Quiet Place Part II.
Maybe the biggest testament to how much people who have seen Sinners are raving about it to their friends is what’s called its “holdover.” That’s annoying biz language for how much a film’s box office and attendance drops each week after its opening weekend. That number is typically massive—obviously, movies have huge openings, and then interest wanes significantly.
Sinners had the smallest second-week drop at the box office since Avatar in 2009. Do you understand how wild that is? Since Avatar! Since the movie that cost the gross GDP of a mid-sized nation and required the invention of new film technologies to make. And came out 16 years ago. That’s an insane stat.
And that holdover at the box office—in other words, movie fans’ interest in Sinners—is still going on. It broke records again this week as the biggest Wednesday box office ever for a horror film. That may seem like a random stat, but I think it’s a big deal. Who the hell goes to see a movie on a Wednesday? It takes something like Sinners to drag you out of the house.
Anecdotally, I can speak to how much of a big ticket Sinners still is. I tried to go see it again this week in New York, and the only tickets available were in the front row. (I didn’t go; my old-man neck can’t do front row without requiring a post-film appointment with a chiropractor.)
And, to drive a stake into the point (heh), this is for a completely original film. This is not an Avengers movie. It’s not based on existing IP. It’s not a sequel. It’s not a biopic. No nuclear bombs are exploded. Ryan Gosling doesn’t sing a song.
I’m so exasperated by reports about how the only movies people are seeing are the ones where superheroes fly around in spandex suits or are based on children’s video games that parents take their kids to because at least that’s two hours of a Saturday that are accounted for.
Sinners being this much of a big deal is a Very Big Deal.
