‘Sinners’ Off To $4.7 Million Start For Easter Weekend

FRIDAY MIDDAY: Warner’s Easter double feature weekend is currently shaping up with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners winning Good Friday over A Minecraft Movie, $18M to $16.5M, but the Mojang movie looks to assail the R-rated Michael B. Jordan twins movie, $44M to $40M, for its third No. 1 weekend win. Both projections could go higher as the weekend continues per sources. Some see Minecraft potentially hitting $50M. Minecraft is playing at 4,032 while Sinners is at 3,308 sites.

It’s the second time that Warner Bros. has led the Easter weekend box office in the No. 1 and 2 spots since 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona ($26.3M) and Shazam (third weekend of $16.4M) in the No. 1 and 2 spots. Last night’s turn out by Black moviegoers at 46% indicates good walk-up business for Sinners especially after the excellent word of mouth, and we’re hearing a high Imax share as well. Sinners is the first release shot with Imax film cameras since Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, and the last until next year’s The Odyssey. Coogler leaned heavily into IMAX in the promotion of the film with a viral video breaking down aspect ratios, Imax premieres in NYC, Mexico City and London, while also inviting tastemaker friends Lebron James, Adele, Jay-Z, The Weeknd and Snoop Dogg to screen the film at Imax’s Playa Vista headquarters. Exclusively in Imax auditoriums, sequences of Sinners visually expand during the pic to fill the screen allowing moviegoers to experience more picture with unprecedented detail and clarity. 

Social media reach on Sinners was pretty big at 222.5 million per RelishMix across X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. That’s higher than the social media universe before release of Us (123M), Nope (179.8M) and Candyman (144.3M, $22M opening). Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, are socially activated with 24M followers apiece. Among the positive reaction online, RelishMix noticed that fans loved how the trailer didn’t give everything away, and they love how Coogler and Jordan are a combo much like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.

Third goes to Angel Studios’ second weekend of The King of Kings at 3,535 theaters with $6M today and $17M in its second weekend, taking its running cume before Easter Monday to an estimated $45M.

Fourth is 20th Century Studios’ The Amateur with $8M in its second weekend, -46% after a near $3M Friday at 3,400 sites. Ten-day total would stand at $28M.

Fifth is A24’s Warfare at 2,670 locations is seeing $1.4M today, $4M, -50% for its second weekend and a running total by Sunday of $16M. The movie will easily eclipse the domestic run of 2008 Iraq War bomb squad unit movie, The Hurt Locker at $17M stateside, which you’ll remember, won 2009 Best Picture at the Oscars.

FRIDAY AM: Warner Bros’ $90 million+ period vampire movie Sinners chalked up $4.7 million in Thursday night previews that began yesterday at 3 p.m. Out of the gate with preview-night audiences, Sinners gets 5 stars on PostTrak with 80% definite recommend, an excellent exit that could bode well for over-indexing, knock on wood. Rotten Tomatoes is also high on the Ryan Coogler-Michael B. Jordan reteam, with reviews at 97% certified fresh and exits at that level as well.

The diversity demos last night were 46% Black, 30% Caucasian, 15% Latino and Hispanic and 5% Asian.

Sinners in its preview take is under that of genre comps like 2022’s Nope ($6.4M Thursday night, $44.3M opening) and 2019’s Us ($7.4M, $71.1M).

The miracles of Good Friday at the box office, with 72% of K-12 schools and a close to a third of colleges on break, were already in effect last night, with Warner Bros/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie shooting up in its daily take by 21% over Wednesday with $6.5M, sending the Jared Hess movie past the three-century mark at the domestic box office with $303.3M. A Minecraft Movie pulled off the feat in 14 days, three days slower than Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s Super Mario Bros which took 11 days to cross $300M. That movie ended its U.S.-Canada run at $574.9M. A Minecraft Movie ends its second week with $102.9M.

One of the two movies will wind up as No. 1 during the Easter holiday frame with respective weekend takes of $40M+. Who can ding a studio for owning the top two slots over a holiday weekend? Good on Warner Bros.

Sinners is booked at 3,308 theaters including premium auditoriums of Imax 70MM, Imax digital, 70MM, Dolby, PLFs and motion seats.

RELATED: Everything We Know About Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’: From The Themes To How It Was Shot

Also opening this weekend is Bleecker Street’s remake of the Ang Lee movie The Wedding Banquet starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone at 1,133 theaters. The movie gets 3 stars from PostTrak audiences and a 50% definite recommend.

The rest of the week is as follows:

2.) The King of Kings (Angel) 3200 theaters, Thu $2.4M (+15% over Wednesday), Total $28M/Wk 1

3.) The Amateur (20th/Dis) 3,400 theaters, Thu $1M (-6%), Total $20.1M/Wk 1

4.) Warfare (A24) 2,670 theaters, Thu $891K (-6%) Total $12M/Wk 1

5.) Drop (Uni) 3,085 theaters, Thu $617K (+2%) Total $10.1M/Wk 1

RELATED: Ryan Coogler Teases ‘Sinners’ Themes And Supernatural Elements Beyond Vampires In His “Personal Love Letter” To Cinema