Box Office: 'Sinners' Nabs $4.7M Thursday

Ryan Coogler's acclaimed horror flick is off to a solid start, especially for an original, R-rated chiller. Now we just hope that it's not frontloaded and that the good buzz entices the unconverted.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Sinners earned $4.7 million in preview grosses, including its limited Wednesday debut in 70mm auditoriums. In terms of big-deal scary movies, it’s understandably below the likes of Halloween ($7.7 million toward a $77 million opening weekend in 2018) and It Chapter One ($13.5 million toward a $123 million Fri-Sun debut in 2017). However, among wholly original horror flicks, it ranks behind only Jordan Peele’s Nope ($6.4 million toward a $44 million debut in 2022) and Peele’s Us ($7.4 million toward a $71 million debut in 2019). Thursday-to-Sunday legs like Peele’s UFO epic will leave Sinners struggling to top $40 million for the weekend, while legs like his first post-Get Out offering (and A Quiet Place, natch) will give it an over/under $55 million debut. I’d expect closer to the latter, but — amid a decade of audiences not showing up for what they claim to want — I’ll be holding my breath until we know for sure.