“I believe in cinema,” Ryan Coogler writes halfway through a heartfelt letter to moviegoers, expressing gratitude to those who turned out to see “Sinners”; The film earned an impressive $8M On Wednesday, which brought its domestic total to $64M.
The letter, which Coogler shared with Variety, continues: “I believe in the theatrical experience. I believe it’s a vital pillar of our society. That’s why my peers and I have devoted our lives to this craft. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without your support—without you showing up.”
In the following paragraph, Coogler goes on to name several inspirations behind “Sinners,” among them, plenty of filmmakers. He calls these names his “cinematic influences.”
Spike Lee, John Singleton, Ernie Barnes, Steve McQueen, Ava Duvernay, Euzhan Palcy, Eudora Welty, Oscar Micheaux, Robert Rodriguez, Barry Jenkins, Quentin Tarantino, Nicolas Roeg, Andrea Arnold, Jeremy Saulnier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel and Ethan Coen, Bill Gunn, Jordan Peele, John Carpenter, Boots Reilly, Shaka King, Nia Dacosta, Terence Nance, Rian Johnson, Bradford Young, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Chris Nolan, Emma Thomas, Theodore Witcher, Francis Coppola, Julie Dash, Steven Spielberg, Kahlil Joseph, Mati Diop, Ben and Josh Safdie, Stephen King, Robert Palmer, Amiri Baraka, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Walter Mosley, Stephen Graham Jones, Joel Crawford, Wes Craven, and many others.