The way you guys are framing the box office for ‘Sinners’ is telling
Sinners is finally here and its opening weekend box office exceeded expectations. You won’t know that based on how trade publications have been talking about Ryan Coogler’s original horror film. They are continually downplaying the film’s success.
Variety posted a breakdown of the box office report and, in their own way, compared Sinners to the box office for Minecraft, a film in its third weekend at the box office. The publication wrote the following in the tweet for their article: “Sinners has amassed $61 million in its global debut. It’s a great result for an original, R-rated horror film, yet the Warner Bros. release has a $90 million price tag before global marketing expenses, so profitability remains a ways away.”
Many in the industry have pushed back at this framing. White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger simply pointed out that it is the opening weekend for the film. For context, I live in New York and have to go next weekend in order to see it at the IMAX 70 mm because a good portion of the screenings were full. That’s a good sign!
Other creatives, like Severance director and actor Ben Stiller, took umbrage with the framing. Stiller wrote on X “In what universe does a 60 million dollar opening for an original studio movie warrant this headline?” Creator of the Black List, Franklin Leonard, pointed out that films like Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood made less during its opening weekend.
“I wonder if Variety covered Once Upon A Time in Hollywood – which made 10% less at the domestic box office on 10% more theaters prepandemic and at the same budget with a similar deal structure – in the same way,” Leonard wrote and that’s pretty much the issue. Often, movies from white creatives don’t get this treatment.
Whatever the intention, it feels gross
Sinners is finding success at the box office. What makes it better is that both Sinners and Minecraft are successes for Warner Bros. as a studio! So why then is the box office being framed in a negative light? It is out performing in its opening weekend! And there are many, myself included, who want to go and see it for the second time in theaters. Word of mouth will help the film and already putting a negative light on the success of Coogler’s work doesn’t look good or help.
Variety knows what it was doing. Whether they recognized the implications, I cannot say for certain. But the publication did make it clear how it wanted to frame this. As Sophie Benoit points out, there is a trend with many online that they want to paint movies as “unprofitable” and so even when a movie does find success, there is a spin to make it seem like it is not enough.
Sinners still has time to continue to find the success it already has and add to it. Framing the film over-performing as a bad thing is a bad faith take. Anyway, go and see Sinners in theaters. It’s a masterpiece.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
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