Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is gathering serious box office momentum. Though it’s an original live-action R-rated horror movie, Sinners is starting to garner tangible hype from critics, film geeks, and general moviegoers alike. With box office projections looking strong for this vampire feature, all eyes are on how much this Coogler directorial effort can make at the global box office. After all, the higher it goes, the more likely it is that Hollywood takes more chances on costly original features in the future.
No matter how big Sinners goes, though, it’s unlikely to dethrone the highest-grossing original live-action movie worldwide in the modern cinematic landscape (read: released after January 1, 2010). That’s no insult to Sinners; it’s just that no original film should have to face the expectation of dethroning that particular box office king. Ironically, the record belongs to a motion picture that never received a proper theatrical run in America.
Meet Hi, Mom, The Biggest Movie You’ve Never Heard Of
Among post-Avatar live-action features not based on any pre-existing source material (including historical events, bands, etc.), the reigning box office champion is the 2021 Jia Ling directorial effort, Hi, Mom. This comedy has classic time travel shenanigans involving a lady going back in time to meet a younger version of her mother, and heartfelt yet wacky antics ensue. Originating from the Chinese film industry, Hi, Mom grossed a massive $838.41 million in China and roughly $600,000 from other territories for a $839.09 million worldwide total.
Not even hefty post-2010 original live-action box office titans like Interstellar or Ted could hope to reach Hi, Mom’s financial heights. This feature benefited from launching over the lucrative Chinese New Year frame in its home country, while its unstoppable legs in the weeks after its release could be chalked up to good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Audiences who saw Hi, Mom wanted to go back and experience it with others. That was prosperous to this comedy more so than any pre-existing IP brand name could hope to be.
Naturally, Hi, Mom racked up massive box office records in its home country, including becoming (at the time) the second-biggest movie, only behind Wolf Warriors 2 in 2017. More importantly, Hi, Mom opened roughly a year after COVID-19 shut down movie theaters. An original film doing this kind of gangbusters business didn’t just provide a tough box office act for subsequent original titles like Sinners to follow – it also indicated that moviegoers will still come out for original theatrical fare. This COVID crisis couldn’t stifle the appetite moviegoers have for some quality original cinema.
[RELATED: Sinners Could Be the Box Office Hit WB Needs Before Superman Opens]
The Other Highest-Grossing Original Movies
Among Hi, Mom’s triumphs financially was taking the crown of biggest post-Avatar live-action feature not based on any pre-existing source material from Inception (2010). For eons, Inception’s $826.87 million global haul certainly looked like it would never be toppled, especially given how much Hollywood committed to pre-existing franchise fare in the 2010s. This July 2010 Christopher Nolan directorial effort was a magnificent performer that set new highs for how big heist and Leonardo DiCaprio features could go at the global box office.
The scarcity of post-2010 original film hits means you have to go far down the chart of all-time worldwide box office performers before you find the next post-2009 movie that qualifies. Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, earning $684.65 million in 2013, is another massive winner that didn’t need a familiar brand to win over moviegoers. Interstellar and Hancock also each cracked the $624+ million line, with these titles using the names of Christopher Nolan and Will Smith (respectively) as equivalents to brand names, in order to get people in theaters. That’s pretty much it for post-Avatar original live-action movies that cracked $600+ million worldwide.
Sinners doesn’t need to beat Hi, Mom or even reach Interstellar-levels of revenue to qualify as a success. Its box office numbers should be assessed on their own terms, rather than compared to box office flukes like Hi, Mom. However, examining the sparse competition Sinners has among original live-action box office titans tragically encapsulates how much Hollywood has come to rely on pre-existing franchises in the last 15 years. Hits like Inception become even rarer when Hollywood doesn’t even frequently produce original blockbusters like Sinners.
Sinners is not in theaters, IMAX, or 70mm.
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