On Saturday, Warner Bros.’ “Sinners” reached a box office milestone that no original film has achieved in eight years: $200 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Driven by critical and audience acclaim that has made it a must-see for millions of Americans, Ryan Coogler’s musical vampire horror hit is the highest domestic grossing original movie since the Pixar movie “Coco,” which grossed $210 million during its Thanksgiving run in 2017.
“Sinners” has passed that total before inflation adjustment with an estimated domestic total of $216 million after four weekends in theaters. The loss of Imax screens to Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts*” has done little to slow its momentum, enjoying a fourth weekend total of $23 million that alone is higher than the opening weekend of any horror film since Paramount’s “Smile 2” last October.
Sporting a reported $90 million budget and a rare agreement to return rights to the film to Coogler in 25 years, “Sinners” was a big risk for Warner’s film studio chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy as they seek to build relationships with filmmakers via big-budget original titles like Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming “One Battle After Another.”
That risk has paid off in a big way. While overseas grosses are low at $69 million, “Sinners” will pass $300 million worldwide in the coming week and turn a profit theatrically. It is also setting itself up for plenty of post-theatrical revenue with its early Oscar buzz that should play into strong interest in premium on-demand and Blu-Ray sales and could potentially boost streaming subscriptions upon its release on Max.
As for the rest of its box office run, “Sinners” is on pace to gross at least $275 million domestic. That would be enough to make it the highest grossing live-action original film before inflation adjustment since Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” in 2013.
Beyond that, passing $292 million domestic would put it above Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” to become the highest grossing original film of the past 15 years, and crossing $300 million would make it the first original film to do so since the highest grossing film of all time, “Avatar.”
