Ben Stiller has fiercely defended Ryan Coogler’s new vampiric horror movie against a report that even with its $61 million global debut, “profitability remains a ways away.”
Sinners, an original, genre-hopping supernatural thriller starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, opened in theaters over Easter weekend. With its impressive $61 million launch, the Warner Bros. release surged past A Minecraft Movie to lead box office figures.
Still, in a recent article published by Variety about the film’s success, the outlet noted that while its box office takings are a “great result,” “profitability remains a ways away,” given the film’s “eye-popping $90 million price tag before global marketing expenses.”
The Severance director, 59, quickly hit back at the publication’s claims, writing on X: “In what universe does a 60 million dollar opening for an original studio movie warrant this headline?”
Stiller later responded in agreement to a commenter, who argued that “60 mill seems like a killer opening weekend.”
“It is,” he wrote.
The Independent has reached out to Variety for comment.
Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan as identical twin brothers, who, in an attempt to turn their backs on a troubled past, return to their Mississippi hometown to start again, only to be met with an even greater evil.
The film is set in 1932 in the American South during the Jim Crow era, when laws perpetuated racial discrimination.
Set over one night, the film follows Jordan’s twins as they open a juke joint for an evening of drinking, music, and entertainment. But things take a turn following the arrival of the mysterious Remmick, who is played by Jack O’Connell.
Sinners was an immediate hit with critics.
In a four-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey declared that the movie “deserves to be a global sensation.”
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The world appears to agree, as it currently holds a 97 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a record-breaking A rating on CinemaScore. It’s the first horror movie ever to achieve the latter feat.
For comparison, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, which went on to win an Oscar, received a CinemaScore of A- while Ari Aster’s critically acclaimed Hereditary received a D+. The company has, for the past 47 years, measured a film’s appeal by polling early reactions to major releases.
Sinners is out now in theaters.
