The weekend box office is on fire, with ticket sales up more than 100 percent over the same frame last year.
The blaze is led by Warner Bros.’ Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. Heading into its sophomore outing, the film was expected to compete with Ben Affleck-starrer The Accountant 2 for the top spot with anywhere from $20 million to $25 million.
But the supernatural period vampire pic continues to defy all the odds and easily stayed No. 1 domestically with a phenomenal $45 million to boast one of the smallest drops in history for a movie playing outside of the year-end holidays, or 6 percent off from its $48 million opening weekend.
Put another way, Sinners boasts the smallest second-weekend drop for any film opening north of $40 million since 2009’s Avatar and the smallest ever for an R-rated horror title. That puts the film’s domestic tally through Sunday at $122.5 million domestically and a huge $161.6 million globally. At this pace, there’s no telling how far in the black the $90 million movie will end up after some naysayers labeled it a money-loser even before it had a chance to bare its teeth.
Graced with virtually perfect audience scores and the best reviews of filmmaker Coogler‘s already acclaimed career, Sinners has transformed into the rare title that has become a runaway water-cooler sensation in a major victory for Warners’ movie chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca. The pic is broadening out in term of ethnicity and gender, according to the studio. One example: females now make up half the audience, whereas males made up 56 percent of all opening weekend ticket buyers.
Disney’s 20th anniversary release of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Amazon MGM Studios’ new Ben Affleck action-thriller The Accountant 2 are also fueling the boom (and don’t forget about Warners’ A Minecraft Movie, which remains high up on the chart in its fourth weekend as it races past the $800 million mark globally).
And talk about the Force being alive and well. Revenge of the Sith edged past The Accountant with an estimated $25.2 million to come in second and score one of the top openings ever for a rerelease. The crownholder continues to belong to 1977’s Star Wars, which grossed $35.9 million when it hit theaters again in 1997, not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.
Overseas, Revenge of the Sith grossed $17 million for a global weekend haul of $42.2 million.
The Star Wars rerelease comes amid the 20th anniversary of the final of George Lucas’ prequel films. The prequels, while divisive at the time, have only grown more appreciated in recent years, with a generation of kids who grew up with them considering the films their preferred Star Wars trilogy. Star Hayden Christensen received a rock star-esque greeting last week at the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, while he and Sith star Ewan McGregor reprised their roles for the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi in 2022, returning their versions of the characters Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi to the zeitgeist.
In terms of more recent rereleases in the franchise, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace earned $8.7 million on its opening weekend in May 2024, while the rerelease of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi grossed $5.1 million in late April 2023.
Racking up strong numbers in its own right, The Accountant 2 opened to an estimated $24.6 million after scoring strong reviews and exit scores, including an A- CinemaScore, in a win for Amazon MGM as it ramps up its theatrical ambitions (it’s now home of the James Bond franchise). The film appealed in particular to older adults — a hard crowd to please — with 27 percent of all ticket buyers being 50 or older.
The first Accountant, released by Warners, opened to $24.7 million in 2016 on its way to grossing $155.5 million globally, not adjusted for inflation, and becoming the most-rented digital film in 2017.
Reuniting Affleck and director Gavin O’Connor, Accountant 2 currently sports a fresh 76 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a rotten 53 percent for the first film. Consumers are far more entranced, judging by the sequel’s current 93 percent audience Rotten Tomatoes score.
Affleck produced the sequel via his and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, alongside Lynette Howell Taylor for 51 Entertainment and Mark Williams for Zero Gravity Management. The film made its world premiere at SXSW last month, winning the audience award for the Headliners section.
Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson and J.K. Simmons co-star in Accountant 2, which sees Affleck’s character compelled to step in and help solve the murder of an old acquaintance with the help of his estranged brother and a U.S. Treasury agent. Together, they uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.
Both Accountant 2 and Sinners are R-rated and are competing with Revenge of the Sith for male attention, although the latter has the advantage of also playing to families alongside A Minecraft Movie, which came in fourth with a domestic haul of $22.7 million. The video game adaptation has now grossed $380 million domestically and $436.6 million overseas for a global haul of $816.6 million.
Screen Gem and Sony’s new horror offering Until Dawn rounded out the top five domestically with an estimated $8 million, on the higher end of expectations despite competition from Sinners. Overseas, it took in $10.1 million for a start of $18.1 million.
More to come.
April 27, 8 a.m.: Updated with revised numbers.
This story was originally published April 26 at 8:30 a.m.
