Sinners barely moved an inch in fortifying its name to keep its crown for the second weekend, dropping 6% to earn $45 million. A rare occurrence for a horror title, this means the Ryan Coogler-directed vampire feature can potentially reach $200 million domestic when it wraps up—a phenomenon for a non-IP feature, as it will mark eight years (since Pixar’s Coco) of an original domestic title reaching $200 million domestically. Perhaps folks want more of an actor playing a dual role to rush back to the theaters. Perhaps folks want more originals than another chug of the mill IP flick (sorry!) in today’s barren landscape of innovative originals.
Even when bolstered by Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and Hailee Steinfeld, this is an excellent win for Warner Brothers. While it could get trampled a bit by Thunderbolts next weekend (which is already leading with a solid word-of-mouth and positive words that highlight it being the best film since Endgame), Sinners is here to stay for the lead into the summer holidays.
Meanwhile, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned a frontloaded $25.2 million in its return to the theaters, pushing its overall domestic total past $400 million. Perhaps Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels, and kept online pundits in full berserk mode with the memes. The Accountant 2 opened almost on par with its predecessor, with $24.49 million in its debut. Good reviews and the aspirational tentpole name kept it in the loop, despite a massive re-release and Michael B. Jordan’s dual role.
A Minecraft Movie dipped 44% in its fourth weekend, with $22.72 million. That means this video game-based film will soon surpass $400 million domestically and is already soaring towards $900 million worldwide. The chicken jockey surely keeps folks invested, while theaters have to tamp down on the madness. You can’t stop the meta or the lightsabers before the film starts, guys.
Rounding out the top five is newcomer Until Dawn, which opened with $8.01 million. Maybe not an ideal opening, but the film is on a cheap budget to counteract the time loop for the adults, in which they get murdered in different deadly ways.
One last thing: this opening weekend generated $142 million domestically, the largest late April/early summer weekend since 2011 (excluding Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame).
Next weekend sees the release of Thunderbolts*, Pavements, Words of War, Rust, Rosario, and I’m Beginning to See the Light.
