Ben Stiller Defends 'Sinners' Over $48M Box Office Criticism

Ryan Coogler’s already had success with Fruitvale Station, Creed, and the launch of the Black Panther franchise, but now his first original film, Sinners, has him reaching new heights.  The vampire action flick has been hailed as a must-see and is a box office winner, bringing in $48 million during its opening weekend. And that’s not even counting the $15 million from international markets, which, as Vulture reports, means the movie only needs to make another $170 million to break even.  However, the stellar reviews were also met with some criticism, namely from Variety. The publication praises Sinners for beating out ticket sales estimates by a few million and having the highest sales of an original film since Jordan Peele’s Us in 2019, but the critique ends with a “but” by whipping out the calculator. 

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“But Warner Bros. spent a staggering $90 million to produce ‘Sinners’ (before factoring in global marketing expenses), so profitability remains a question mark,” Variety writes. Variety also felt the need to include the line about profitability in the tweet, and even Ben Stiller took issue with the backhanded compliment.  “In what universe does a 60 million dollar opening for an original studio movie warrant this headline?” he questioned in the quote tweets.  Fresh off his breakout role in The White Lotus, Patrick Schwarzenegger was also confused about Variety‘s story, responding, “It’s opening weekend …” A $63 million debut for an original horror movie is a success, but rather than focusing on the movie’s financials, the impact is more important. Sinners has a 98 rating from critics and 97 from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the highest rating this year. It also proves that Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are the director-actor duo who continue to play off each other’s strengths, having previously created magic with Fruitvale Station, Creed, and Black Panther.  It’s also clear Coogler is playing the long game with Sinners, as the rights to the movie revert back to him after 25 years, a deal we’ve only seen with the likes of Quentin Tarantino and George Lucas.  Coogler plans to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe later this summer with the release of the animated Eyes of Wakanda. See how social media is reacting to Variety‘s opinion below.

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