‘Sinners’ Keeps Singing at Box Office With Excellent $44 Million 2nd Weekend

Warner Bros.’ “Sinners” has become a can’t-miss film, and the box office numbers show it. After earning a strong $48 million opening weekend, Ryan Coogler’s original horror film is holding its second weekend drop to a breathtaking 8% as industry estimates are projecting a $44 million total.

Exhibitor sources tell TheWrap that despite being in theaters for a week, sold out screenings for premium formats are being reported in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. For Warner Bros., this is their best second weekend hold since their 2018 hit romcom “Crazy Rich Asians,” which opened to $26.5 million and then dropped just 6.4% with a $24.8 million second weekend.

The film is now on pace to become the first original film since Disney/Pixar’s “Coco” eight years ago to gross $200 million domestic with an industry estimated $121 million total through Sunday. Since its release, “Sinners” has enjoyed a level of critical and audience acclaim rarely seen for any film, let alone for an original horror offering, and has been drawing in moviegoers who weren’t all aware of the film’s existence prior to its release.

“Sinners” easily holds on to the No. 1 spot ahead of Amazon MGM’s “The Accountant 2,” which earned a $9.4 million opening day from 3,610 theaters and is projected to meet pre-release estimates with a $25 million opening weekend. Reception for the sequel to the 2016 Ben Affleck action film has been positive with a 77% critics and 92% audience Rotten Tomatoes score and an A- on CinemaScore but carries a larger reported budget than its predecessor at $80 million.

In third is Disney’s 20th anniversary re-release of “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” which made $11 million on Friday and is heading for an industry estimated weekend total of $23.5 million, topping the $20 million fourth weekend of Warner Bros./Legendary’s “A Minecraft Movie,” which is crossing $375 million domestic this weekend.

For “Sith,” its a remarkable result that’s more than double the $8.7 million weekend that last year’s 25th anniversary re-release of “Episode I — The Phantom Menace” earned. It will also be enough to push lifetime grosses for the final chapter of the “Star Wars” prequel to $400 million domestic.

Finally, Sony/Screen Gems’ video game horror film “Until Dawn” earned $3.2 million from 3,055 theaters and is headed for a $7 million opening weekend. With a Blumhouse-esque $15 million production budget, this adaptation of the Playstation survival horror game from “Shazam!” director David F. Sandberg should reach the break-even point. But it won’t get much farther than that with a 51% critics and 71% audience Rotten Tomatoes score and a C+ on CinemaScore.

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