After industry estimates had the third weekend of “A Minecraft Movie” topping the critically acclaimed “Sinners” at the Easter box office on Saturday morning, the two Warner Bros. films have swapped places atop the box office charts as Ryan Coogler’s horror film is now estimated for a $45.6 million opening weekend.
Should this result hold, “Sinners” will pass the $44.3 million opening of Jordan Peele’s 2022 film “Nope” for the highest opening of an original film since the pandemic. Not only is that highly likely, it wouldn’t be surprising if the final weekend total for “Sinners” is higher than this current estimate given that it is enjoying some of the most spectacular critical and audience buzz given to any film in recent memory.
It starts with a straight A from opening night audiences on CinemaScore, the first given to a horror film since James Cameron’s “Aliens” in 1986. It then continues with a 5/5 and 84% “definite recommend” rating on PostTrak and unbelievable Rotten Tomatoes scores of 98% critics and 97% audience.
According to PostTrak, about three-fifths of tickets sold for “Sinners” on Friday were walk-up sales, showing how quickly this incredibly positive word-of-mouth is spreading. As expected for a film from the director of “Black Panther,” Black audiences are the top demographic at 49% on opening night followed by 27% white and 14% Latino, with extremely high scores across all demos.
This strong result isn’t enough to get “Sinners” past the break-even point yet, as it has a reported net $90 million budget before marketing costs. But all signs point to the film legging out extremely well, especially with another weekend of Imax and premium format support still ahead before the arrival of Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts.” Along with casual audiences who may heard about the film for the first time thanks to the post-release buzz, there is likely a section of Coogler’s fanbase that still hasn’t seen the film yet because they are waiting for a convenient time to see it on an Imax screen.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros.’ other big hit, “A Minecraft Movie,” is still setting the bar high as 2025’s highest grossing film with an excellent $41.3 million third weekend, putting the film’s domestic total at $345 million as it is now a lock to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide. After a negative reception to its first trailer last year, the video game adaptation has completely turned things around with family audiences with its meme-driven buzz.
As “Sinners” and “Minecraft” have dragged the box office out of its deep March slump, they mark a major victory for Warner Bros.’ film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who were facing murmurs in media reports that Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav was considering replacing them.
“Sinners” in particular is a major victory for the two execs, as it is one of a series of original, auteur-driven films that De Luca and Abdy staked major money on in their efforts to rebuild Warner’s image as a filmmaker-friendly studio following the shocking departure of Christopher Nolan to Universal prior to their arrival in 2021. As part of that effort, De Luca and Abdy agreed to extremely favorable terms for Coogler to bring “Sinners” onto their slate, including returning the film’s rights to the director after 25 years.
More to come…
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