The most powerful new film released last weekend was The Accountant 2, starring Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, and J.K. Simmons. However, after being released in 3,610 theaters in North America, the film earned $24.49 million in its opening weekend, not only losing to The Sinner, which earned $45 million in its second weekend, but even worse than Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, which was re-released 20 years after its release. The latter was released in 2,775 theaters and earned $25.2 million, ranking second on the weekend box office list.
"The Accountant 2" has an 82% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The top four films all grossed over $20 million
The Accountant 2, produced by Amazon MGM Studios, is a sequel released nine years later, and the director is still Gavin O'Connor, who directed the first film. The first film opened with $24.7 million, with a total North American box office of $86.2 million and a global box office of $155 million. The opening box office of the second film is almost the same as the first film nine years ago, which is quite a coincidence.
However, considering the changes in the ticket prices over the past nine years, the number of people who went to see the second film has actually shrunk a lot. Of course, the sequel has an 82% freshness rating on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes, and the Cinemascore audience rating is A-. These two results are pretty good for an action film, and I believe it should have some staying power. The Accountant 2 has been confirmed to be introduced to mainland China and will be released on May 16.
Another new film released last weekend was Sony Pictures' horror film "Until Dawn." The film was directed by David F. Sandberg, the director of "Shazam!", and was adapted from the video game of the same name released by Sony in 2015. After being released in 3,055 theaters, the film only earned $8.01 million in the opening box office, ranking fifth on the weekend box office list.
The horror film Until Dawn is adapted from a video game.
Ranked fourth is "Minecraft: The Movie", which is also adapted from a video game. Its cumulative box office in North America has reached 380 million US dollars. Last weekend was the third week after the film was released, and the box office still reached 22.7 million US dollars.
This also means that the top four films last weekend all had a three-day weekend box office of more than 20 million US dollars. The last time this happened was in early August 2023, when the top four were "Barbie", "Oppenheimer", "The Meg 2" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". It can be said that since the release of "Minecraft: The Movie", the North American film market has shown signs of recovery. The current annual box office has increased by 11% compared to the same period in 2024, which has also relieved the cinema industry to some extent.
The fantasy film "The Legend of Ochi" from A24 Films was first screened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles on April 18. This weekend, the scale of screenings was expanded to 1,153 theaters in North America, and ultimately earned $1.44 million in weekend box office, ranking tenth.
The fantasy film "Legend of Orchid" comes from A24 Films.
The ninth place is the concert film "Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii". Like "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith", this film is also a re-release of an old film, which was originally released in 1973. This time it has been restored in 4K and won a weekend box office of 2.62 million US dollars after being released in 654 theaters in North America.
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii is restored in 4K and released again.
There are signs that The Sinner will be a big hit at the box office
After talking about the new films, let's talk about "The Sinner", which won the box office championship. The film's opening box office was 48 million US dollars, and the box office this weekend was 45 million US dollars, which was only 6% lower than the same period last year. Generally speaking, if a film with an opening box office of more than 40 million US dollars drops 40% in the second weekend, it will be considered to be performing OK; if it only drops 25%, it is really an amazing result. And situations like "The Sinner" are rare in the history of box office. The last time it happened was "Shrek the Monsters" in 2001. Its first weekend box office and second weekend box office were 42.34 million US dollars and 42.48 million US dollars respectively. Because of the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, the second weekend box office did not drop but rose.
"The Sinner" starring Michael B. Jordan and others.
At present, the cumulative North American box office of "The Sinner" has reached 120 million US dollars. The production cost of the film is 90 million US dollars, and it is about 135 million US dollars after adding marketing expenses. In the face of its somewhat unexpected success, there are currently two views in the industry. One is that Warner has bet on the right person this time, but it is still a bit risky to invest 90 million US dollars in such an original project, because the film needs 300 million US dollars in global box office to recoup the cost. The other is that Ryan Coogler, as a director, has long been a golden signboard for box office returns, but because of traditional ideas such as racial prejudice, many people do not realize this; and in addition to the box office, "The Sinner" can still expect future streaming media revenue, so recouping the cost should not be a problem.
Those who hold the latter view use the box office data of his five directorial works since he entered the industry as evidence, and compare them horizontally with directors who have directed at least five films in the past 25 years and at least one of the first five films has a total box office of more than $100 million (based on data adjusted for current ticket prices). The conclusion is that Coogler is ahead of almost all of these peers.
Ryan Coogler (center) on the set of "The Sinner."
Ryan Coogler was born in 1986. His first feature film was the independent film "Fruitvale Station" released in 2013. The average North American movie ticket price 12 years ago was much cheaper than it is now. The total North American box office of 16.1 million US dollars at that time is about 24 million US dollars today, which is more than 3 million US dollars higher than the total box office of 20.47 million US dollars of "Anola", which won the Oscar for Best Picture this year.
"Creed," released in 2015, rebooted the long-dormant "Loki" series, and its North American box office exceeded $100 million. "Black Panther," released in 2018, became the only Marvel movie to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture; together with "Black Panther 2" in 2022, the box office data of both films are quite impressive. In terms of reviews, his films have an average score of 81 on Metacritic, and four of the five films have exceeded 80 points.
Comparing the performance of the first five films of directors who also achieved high box office and high reputation, the average score of "Whiplash" director Damien Chazelle on Metacritic is 82 points, but the total North American box office of his five films is only $300 million; the average score of "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig on Metacritic is 88 points, but she has only made three films so far, with a total North American box office of $850 million; the total North American box office of the first five films of thriller master Night Shyamalan is $1.4 billion, which is closest to the $1.5 billion that Coogler has accumulated so far, but Shyamalan's average score on Metacritic is only 59 points.
Others such as Quentin Tarantino ($600 million, 78 points), David Fincher ($780 million, 64 points), and Christopher Nolan ($610 million, 69 points) did not perform as well as Coogler in both of their first five works. Only Steven Spielberg, the pioneer of Hollywood blockbusters, is left, whose first five works have a North American box office value of approximately $2.5 billion today, and an average score of 72 on Metacritic.
Tom Cruise posted his ticket stub for watching "The Sinner".
All in all, Warner's appreciation for Coogler and giving him the opportunity to shoot the purely original The Sinner was by no means an impulsive gamble. It is worth mentioning that although the film has received support from many filmmakers including Tom Cruise, there are actually quite a few media outlets that "sing bad news" about Coogler and Warner, and the authoritative Hollywood media Variety is one of them. After the film's opening box office was released, Variety's box office expert Rebecca Rubin pointed out in an analysis article that "The Sinner's global premiere box office has reached 61 million US dollars, which is a good result for an original restricted horror film, but Warner's production cost is 90 million US dollars, which makes the film's profitability a distant thing."
Many Hollywood insiders expressed strong disgust at the negative words. Comedian Ben Stiller reposted the Variety article on his social media account and added a comment: "In what kind of world does an original movie that debuted at $63 million worldwide and $48 million in North America have to face scrutiny over whether it can make a profit after just one weekend in theaters?"
Later, comedian Kristen Schaal, who has voiced for films such as Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me 2, also commented: "The box office success of The Sinner should be a moment worth celebrating. Unfortunately, in this industry, everyone only writes news from a negative perspective because only in this way can they get clicks, but this is really disgusting, and people who don't know the truth will indeed think that The Sinner's box office is bad, which results in a vicious cycle."
Patrick Schwarzenegger, who became famous for starring in the third season of the TV series "White Lotus Resort", left a comment directly on the official account of "Variety": "This is just the box office of the opening weekend." Joe Russo, the director of many Marvel movies, responded more sarcastically: "I thought of a more appropriate title for "Variety": "The Sinner". Why didn't this movie make back all its costs in three days?"
