I think it’s safe to say that, even with soft numbers overseas, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” is shaping up to be a legit box office hit. The movie pulled in a strong $7M on Wednesday, which is wild considering that’s nearly half of what it made on its holiday-boosted Friday. Usually, midweek numbers are way lower—like under 20% of the weekend take—so this is definitely something.
That solid Wednesday haul points to real momentum, with audiences clearly showing up and spreading the word. Early projections have it clearing $77M domestically by the end of its first week, and with legs like these, it’s looking like “Sinners” is in for a strong run.
Looking ahead, the movie’s second weekend drop is expected to be unusually low. Forecasts are putting it over $40M —which is just nuts, considering it opened with $48M. If it hits that $40M mark by Sunday, we could be talking about a record-breaking -16% drop. That’s almost unheard of.
“Sinners” is now outpacing pretty much every horror release this decade, R-rating or not. It’s obvious that word of mouth is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, boosted by great press and glowing audience scores. And let’s not ignore the fact that almost half of the people buying tickets aren’t white—a key demo that’s powered hits like “Get Out,” “Black Panther,” and “Creed III.”
This is very much a James Gray movie — romantic, old-fashioned, sometimes overly serious, but also capable of delivering some incredible suspense.