Two Warner Bros. releases went toe to toe at the box office this weekend, and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners won the top spot in a close race. According to Variety, the R-rated horror film grossed around $45.6 million domestically over its first three days, narrowly edging A Minecraft Movie ($41.3 million) for the No. 1 position. For most of the weekend, projections had Minecraft repeating as the box office champ for the third consecutive weekend, but Sinners — bolstered by universal critical acclaim — surged ahead late. Worldwide, Sinners has grossed $61 million against a $90 million production budget.
The rest of this weekend’s top five is rounded out by holdovers. In third place is the faith-based The King of Kings with $17 million; revenge thriller The Amateur earned $6.8 million for fourth place; Alex Garland’s Warfare came in fifth with $4.8 million.
After a rough start to the year that saw multiple high-profile releases underwhelm at the box office or outright bomb, A Minecraft Movie was the phenomenon theater owners needed. Releasing in early April, the film scored the biggest opening weekend for a video game adaptation, making $162.7 million domestically. It took Minecraft just two weekends to pass Captain America: Brave New World as 2025’s highest-grossing title. A Minecraft Movie currently stands at $720.8 million worldwide.
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Sinners is the second WB release this month to exceed box office expectations. Early tracking a few weeks prior to the film’s release had it pegged for a start of around $40 million. At that time, some data indicated it could open more in the range of the low $30 millions. Sinners received a nice boost thanks to the enthusiastic word of mouth; it debuted with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score as critics praised director Ryan Coogler’s vision and the performances from the cast.
Going into this weekend, Sinners was shaping up to be an interesting box office test. Over the last decade, Coogler has established himself as one of his era’s most gifted filmmakers, but his biggest projects (Creed, Black Panther) were rooted in established Hollywood IP. Sinners is Coogler’s first original film, with the fact that he directed it one of its biggest selling points. That it performed as strongly as it did, holding off tough competition from a family movie over Easter weekend, speaks volumes. It indicates that Coogler himself is enough of a draw to bring moviegoers to the theater, which should give him plenty of clout to pursue other original projects down the line.
It’ll be interesting to see how high Sinners goes over the remainder of its theatrical run. Next weekend’s The Accountant 2 is shaping up to be another well-received offering for older moviegoers, and then the following week sees Marvel’s Thunderbolts* kick off the summer movie season. Sinners still has some work to do before it turns a profit, so it will need to have strong legs amidst high-profile competition. Fortunately, the word of mouth means there is a strong chance that happens. With the rave reviews it’s earned, people should continue to check it out in theaters over the next few weeks.
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