Sinners’ Box Office Is Outpacing Almost Every Other Vampire Movie Ever Made

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners held the top spot at the box office in its second week, earning another $45 million. That’s a minuscule drop of just over 6%, which is practically unheard of in the industry at this point in time, when streaming more often than not reigns supreme. It’s the second-best for an R-rated movie in history, with the only film besting it being this year’s dark horse slasher flick Heart Eyes, which actually managed to jump 19% in week two. The catch there was that its second weekend was Valentine’s Day weekend. It’s not quite an apples-to-apples comparison. But, either way, after just two weekends, Sinners has become the 11th highest-grossing vampire movie of all time. And chances are it’s going to go up that list quite a bit and quite quickly.

What’s extra impressive about Sinners‘ tiny drop is that this was a fairly packed weekend at the box office. For one, it opened opposite fellow horror film Until Dawn. Two, there was the hotly anticipated sequel, The Accountant 2. And three, there was the re-release of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which opened to an estimated $25.2 million, higher than even the more bullish projections.

What bloodsucking movies are ahead of Sinners? Just the three Hotel Transylvania movies, and there’s a better than decent chance it will beat the highest-grossing of them (Hotel Transylvania 2‘s $169.7 million) by next Sunday.

Let’s just say for the sake of argument, that there’s a steady series of 40% drops from here on out. Given how this weekend went, that figure is likely high. That would put Sinners at about $166 by the end of next weekend (when it will be competing with the debut of Marvel’s Thunderbolts*).

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It’s certainly possible that Sinners ends up with a domestic haul of $230 million, a truly fantastic result for an entirely original $90 million R-rated horror film. When lined up against other vampire movies, that would only put it behind the three Twilight sequels and I Am Legend.

Of course, the Twilight sequels had a built-in rabid fan base. As for I Am Legend, it had a PG-13 rating and Will Smith at just about the peak of his leading man financial viability. It’s hard to tell if Sinners will end up outgrossing those movies. If Sinners continues to perform like a watercooler talk-inspiring blockbuster, it has a shot.

And, given how The Twilight Saga was always incredibly frontloaded, it was a different case from Sinners. I Am Legend is the better comparison. That film experienced a 56.6% weekend-to-weekend decline. At the end of its sophomore frame, it was at about $136.8 million. That’s not far off from where Sinners is.

Regardless of where Coogler’s film ends up, it is without a doubt a substantial hit, one that will hopefully inspire studios to fund similarly ambitious genre films. We’ll have to wait until next weekend to see how it fares against its biggest competition yet.

Sinners is now playing in theaters, IMAX, and 70mm.