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 is now on course to easily stay No. 1 domestically with a phenomenal $42 million to $44 million after earning $13 million on Friday (rival studios all are betting on the higher number). Either way, Sinners — which opened to $48 million a week ago — could enjoy one of the smallest drops in history for a movie playing outside of the year-end holidays
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. It’s expected to finish Sunday with a 10-day cume hovering around $120 million in a major victory for Warners’ movie chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca.
Amazon MGM Studios’ new action-thriller The Accountant 2 and Disney’s 20th Anniversary release of Lucasfilms’ Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith are also fueling the boom (ditto for Warners’ A Minecraft Movie, which remains high up on the chart in its fourth weekend). Depending upon who you ask, the order of the three movies varies and won’t be determined until Sunday or even Monday.
The Accountant is hoping for at a second-place finish with a promising $23 million-$25 million after scoring strong reviews and exit scores, including an A- CinemaScore. That would be a win as Amazon MGM ramps up its theatrical ambitions (it’s now home of the James Bond franchise).
The first Accountant, released by Warners, opened to $24.7 million in 2016 on its way to grossing $155.5 million globally and becoming the most-rented digital film in 2017.
Runiting 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 the 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.
Revenge of the Sith is looking at a weekend haul of anywhere from $21 million to $23 million, which would be one of the top openings ever for a rerelease (one rival shows the film earning $25 million). The crownholder belongs to 1977’s Star Wars, which grossed $35.9 million when it hit theaters again in 1997, not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.
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 them their preferred Star Wars trilogy. Star Hayden Christensen received a rock star-esque greeting last week at 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 to the zeitgeist.
In terms of more recent rereleases in the franchise, Star Wars: The Phanom 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.
Both Accountant 2 and Sinners are R-rated are competing with Revenge of the Sith for male attention, although the latter has the advantage of also playing to families.
Screen Gem and Sony’s new horror offering Until Dawn looks to round out the top five with a forgettable opening in the $7 million to $8 milion range.