Horror at the Box Office: Sinners Reigns Again
An amazing second weekend propelled Sinners to the box office crown for the second consecutive week! In a record breaking performance, the Michael B. Jordan vampire flick rolled to an estimated $45 million, putting its domestic total at over $122 million after ten days in theaters.
It’s already earned over $160 million worldwide. Despite its huge budget (estimates vary, but sources claim the film may need to make nearly $300 million to recoup its production and marketing costs), Sinners is now well on its way to profitability.
Sinners had one of the tiniest drops in history, falling just 6% from its opening weekend gross. This is the smallest 2nd weekend drop ever for an R-rated horror film. To put it in perspective, a 40% drop is considered excellent for horror movies (and most other films), and even 50% is usually pretty good.
Sinners declined by only a fraction of that. Falling 6% is absolutely mind bogging. If Sinners can maintain anywhere near this level of audience support in the weeks ahead, it will burgeon into a phenomenon the likes of which the genre has rarely seen.
It’s not too early to talk about turning Sinners into a franchise. Of course, this will depend on the level of interest from Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler in continuing the story.
Sinners‘ wild success overshadowed everything else this week, but one other horror movie finished in the top ten. Until Dawn grossed a decent $8 million domestically and $18 million worldwide. The horror videogame adaption cost $15 million. This is a fine start, especially considering it was competing with a juggernaut.
Up Next
Next weekend is quiet in terms of new horror releases, so Sinners will continue to roll. Look for it blow past $200 million worldwide. The next competition will come from Clown in a Cornfield on May 9th and Final Destination Bloodlines on May 16th.
It’s hard to overstate how rare it is for any movie, let alone a horror flick, to have this kind of staying power. It will be fascinating to watch if Sinners can keep this up in the weeks to come.
Credit to Box Office Mojo for the figures cited.
