Do You Even Understand Ho w Big a Deal ‘Sinners’ Is?

This Week

Sinners Is, Like, a Really Big Deal

It’s rare for the question to change in this way.

Usually, as an entertainment journalist, when I make small talk with someone they ask me what movie they should see. It’s a mark of something significant happening when the question is flipped to “have you seen this?” instead.

That’s what’s happening with Sinners.

It’s exciting when a movie hits in a way that it transcends into somewhat of a phenomenon. The water cooler is tipped over and becomes a pool that critics, fans, and cultural commentators dive into and swim in together.

Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan as twins, is even more remarkable as this kind of word-of-mouth hit because of how peculiar it is. It’s a thriller. It’s a vampire movie. It’s a musical. It’s gory. It’s fun. It’s rated R. It’s weird.

This isn’t a film that’s a crowd-pleaser about the most popular doll in consumerist history, or featuring an epic set piece about the first detonation of the literal atomic bomb. It’s a strange bird, and that bird is flying high at the box office.

The film, set in the Mississippi delta, is about two brothers who try to start their lives again in their hometown, only for the juke joint they open to summon vampires from the past and future. It’s a riot.

I’m a bit confused why, given the uniqueness of this movie being such a hit and the records that it’s breaking, that headlines about it aren’t being blared through a Nicole Scherzinger-patented bullhorn and flashed in neon lights. In lieu of that, then, allow me to explain.

Sinners had the biggest opening for an original movie since 2019. In other words, since the Before Times, pre-COVID, when getting people to go see movies in theaters didn’t involve lifting them from their couches and Netflix subscriptions with a crane and physically moving them to the local AMC.

Its Easter weekend opening numbers were better than films you’d assume would do laps around a vampire movie at the box office: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Clash of the Titans. It’s also the first R-rated horror movie in 35 years to get an A rating from audiences on CinemaScore. Get Out didn’t achieve that. Neither did A Quiet Place Part II.

Maybe the biggest testament to how much people who have seen Sinners are raving about it to their friends is what’s called its “holdover.” That’s annoying biz language for how much a film’s box office and attendance drops each week after its opening weekend. That number is typically massive—obviously, movies have huge openings, and then interest wanes significantly.

Sinners had the smallest second-week drop at the box office since Avatarin 2009. Do you understand how wild that is? Since Avatar! Since the movie that cost the gross GDP of a mid-sized nation and required the invention of new film technologies to make. And came out 16 years ago. That’s an insane stat.

And that holdover at the box office—in other words, movie fans’ interest in Sinners—is still going on. It broke records again this week as the biggest Wednesday box office ever for a horror film. That may seem like a random stat, but I think it’s a big deal. Who the hell goes to see a movie on a Wednesday? It takes something like Sinners to drag you out of the house.

Anecdotally, I can speak to how much of a big ticket Sinners still is. I tried to go see it again this week in New York, and the only tickets available were in the front row. (I didn’t go; my old-man neck can’t do front row without requiring an appointment to the chiropractor immediately after.)

And, to drive a stake into the point (heh), this is for a completely original film. This is not an Avengers movie. It’s not based on existing IP. It’s not a sequel. It’s not a biopic. No nuclear bombs are exploded. Ryan Gosling doesn’t sing a song.

I’m so exasperated by reports about how the only movies people are seeing are the ones where superheroes fly around in spandex suits or are based on children’s video games that parents take their kids to because at least that’s two hours of a Saturday that are accounted for.

Sinners being this much of a big deal is a Very Big Deal.

Today’s Top Entertainment News

Give My Regards to Broadway

Something truly unique happened this week. I looked at a list of nominations for an entertainment awards show and wasn’t immediately filled with rage.

The worst part of being a pop culture fan—and definitely the worst part of being a pop culture fan who also tracks pop culture as his job—is witnessing how absolutely wrong so many professional organizations are when they reward their own fields.

The Oscars? Deranged. The Emmys? Delusional. The Grammys? I wasn’t aware that bath salts are included with your welcome kit when you become a voting member, but apparently that’s the case.

So the fact that the Tony Awards exhibited a word I’d almost forgotten existed because I so rarely use it these days—“taste”—is incredible.

This year’s Tony nominations were almost uniformly excellent. I have my quibbles. You’re going to expand to six nominees in some acting categories and you choose to do it for the men??? Are you kidding? Still, aside from personal favorites I may have included myself, it’s hard to argue with the final lists.

So this is the rare case where I can advise fans to use the awards nominations as a guide for what to see. Go see Oh, Mary!, Death Becomes Her, Gypsy, Purpose, or Maybe Happy Endingif you have a chance. Look at the nominated actors and actually think, “Oh, that’s a performance that I shouldn’t miss.” Because in this case, it’s true!

Most importantly, tune into the Tony Awards when they air on June 8, because it is reliably the most fun award show to watch of the year.

We Are So Blessed

I don’t know why there aren’t push alerts, automatic texts, or, frankly, sirens that go off when this happens. So it’s up to me to let you know that a new Nicole Kidman wig has dropped.

The promos for Season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers arrived this week. The poster is insane. How are they both on stairs and on the top of a mountain? But logic isn’t a priority, as proven by the wig chosen for Kidman to wear.

Nicole Kidman Wigs is a field of study that Harvard should be awarding degrees in. And this one should merit its own semester.

Just a Random Mention

For no reason and no reason at all, I just wanted to drop in here, on the occasion of Donald Trump announcing that he’s ending federal funding for NPR and PBS, the time when Sesame Street made a character called Donald Grump. Can’t imagine that’s the reason why the president of the United States is doing that. Can’t imagine that at all.

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