Sinners Is A Box Office Behemoth – But Warner Bros. Screwed Up In One Major Way

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It may sound like banging on a well-beaten drum at this point, but that doesn't make it any less true: Director Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" is one of the biggest box office hits of the year. It's also the first original movie of any kind to make more than $200 million domestically in nearly a decade and has been met with near-universal praise, meaning it's likely to enjoy eternal life well beyond the box office, securing its place in the annals of cinema history. Really, it's hard to find a downside to the whole thing. That said, Warner Bros. did drop the ball in one big, glaring way.

On its seventh weekend of release, "Sinners" crossed the $350 million mark globally, adding another $5.2 million to its ever-growing domestic box office total as it continues to firmly hang around in the top 10. As of this writing, the film has grossed $267 million in North America to go with $83 million overseas, making it the seventh-biggest movie globally of 2025 overall. $400 million worldwide is still very much in the cards, which is a wild number for an original movie, particularly in the pandemic era.

Dating back to its excellent $48 million opening in April, "Sinners" has been killing it in ways nobody thought possible. So, what's the downside? Looking at those numbers, it's hard not to notice that the movie has made less than 24% of its total global gross overseas. For a movie that has done so well in the U.S. (one that comes from the director behind worldwide hits such as "Black Panther" and "Creed," no less), that's worth raising an eyebrow over.

While I can't claim to know the ins and outs of Warner Bros.' marketing strategy, it's crystal clear that the studio made a grave error by underestimating this film's potential overseas. In doing so, WB evidently left a great deal of money on the table, incorrectly assuming that demand internationally for a vampire movie with a primarily Black cast would be limited.

Thus far, international ticket sales for "Sinners" have been soft compared to domestic ticket sales, but there is evidence that there was more demand in many key countries. For example, France dramatically increased the theater count for "Sinners" after its opening weekend in an attempt to meet growing demand. Similarly, the U.K. kept the film playing on more than 600 screens for five weeks, with the film seeing virtually no decline in its second weekend.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that I spoke with several people who live outside of the U.S. who had trouble finding a screening of "Sinners" near them as local chains scrambled to book the movie after its bigger-than-expected opening. It's evident that Warner Bros. felt those audiences wouldn't turn up. Perhaps the studio under-estimated the demand outside of the U.S. in an attempt to mitigate spending. With the benefit of hindsight, though, that appears to have cost it money (and a good deal of money at that).

Maybe WB assumed the film would play more like Jordan Peele's "Get Out," which made $255.4 million worldwide, with $176 million — or 69% of its total — coming from stateside audiences. Or maybe it assumed that "Black Panther," which came close to evenly splitting its domestic and international ticket sales on its way to bringing in a record-shattering $1.3 billion in 2018, only performed the way it did because it was a Marvel movie. Whatever calculations the studio made, they've proven to be costly.

Sure, things have changed in recent years in meaningful ways. Original movies are riskier than they've ever been, and Hollywood can no longer depend on a robust Chinese box office. There are considerations to make. Still, given Coogler's track record (combined with that of his "Sinners" star, Michael B. Jordan), it's clear that when WB bet big on this movie it should have gone all in. The hope is that, moving forward, the studio and others like it won't make the same mistake again. If WB had handled things differently, this could (and should) have been a $500 million movie.

You can pre-order "Sinners" on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD on Amazon.