Box Office: Everything's Coming Up 'Sinners'
With a post-Easter Wednesday gross nearly on par with 'Batman v Superman' and 'Furious 7,' Ryan Coogler's latest is looking like the rare R-rated movie to top $200 million domestically.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I did a long-ass Monday box office post concerning Sinners where I discussed that the film was leggier than any big Easter season release since Hannah Montana: The Movie in 2009. And it wasn’t until after I published that I remembered what those two films had in common. And that commonality highlights the key lesson that Hollywood must learn from Sinners’ spectacular box office performance.
No, it’s not that it’s better to spend $90 million on a potentially buzzy/future generational favorite original than $50-$150 million on an IP-for-IP’s sake revamp about which the world will quickly forget.
It’s not that Black moviegoers can show up for well-received, event-sized movies in numbers large enough to not require *that* much crossover consumption. That’s just silly talk.
It’s not that audiences will be thrilled by unexpectedly good, unconventional, and challenging films as long as (be it via franchise or related variables) it’s a movie they were already planning to see.
It’s not that making movies that today’s kids can get excited for is more valuable than “Hey kids, Indiana Jones is back, ya’ll!” I’d imagine the 2% of last weekend’s audience that was under 18 and gave the film an A+ CinemaScore grade are not unlike moviegoers over/under my age who once thrilled to seeing Robocop before it was “age-appropriate.”
No, the most crucial lesson that Hollywood must take from Sinners is that moviegoers want more movies released on Easter weekend featuring one movie star playing two characters! Pity poor Alto Knights, if only David Zaslav’s personal passion project had opened on Easter weekend!! The sound you surely hear is Disney quickly greenlighting a Liv and Maddie legacy sequel for theaters next Easter.