Copyright Screen Rant
Sinners began the year as a miracle. Warner Bros. bet big on Ryan Coogler and his vision, agreeing not only to a $90+ million budget for an original horror movie but to revert the rights to the filmmaker after 25 years, a rare (but not unheard of) concession from a major studio. Doubt over its ability to be profitable in this marketplace was national news ahead of its release. That bet paid off. The film was a domestic box office phenomenon, grossing $278 million on its way to a worldwide total of $366 million, and earned rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. People went multiple times; Coogler fanned the flames of the projection format fire that Oppenheimer lit. It was one of those movies that felt like it merited the culture's full attention, a feeling that's all too rare these days. The assumption was that Sinners would ride that wave from its release in April all the way to the Academy Awards. It was, after all, the movie of the year. But as the awards race takes shape, I'm getting a bad feeling that things are swinging in a different direction. Sinners' Momentum Is Stalling As Its Competition Strengthens It's hard to keep up an Oscars campaign when a movie releases so early in the year, but it's certainly not unheard of. Sinners basically needs to be Everything Everywhere All At Once, another original story that managed to be actually meaningful to people. That film released in March, and while many other great movies came after it, EEAAO never really vacated that spot in viewers' hearts. Sinners still has that spark, but it seems like it's at risk of fading – in large part because its competition has eaten away at what made it so special this year. Box office wonder? It is that, still, but the story's become about all of WB's 2025 slate rather than the one unicorn. Critical darling? One Battle After Another's stolen that title. The year's defining movie? Hard to argue that isn't KPop Demon Hunters. The year's defining horror movie? Maybe, but Weapons gives it a run for its money. Musical? KPop again, and Wicked: For Good still to come. Sinners isn't being talked about enough right now because other contenders are muscling in on its most important conversations. I thought it had found the perfect way to inject itself back into the public consciousness – an IMAX re-release the week of Halloween – but that came and went without so much as a blip. Not only did it miss the top 10 of one of the worst-performing theatrical weekends of 2025, but box office reports didn't even mention it. Putting the film back in its premiere formats at the spookiest time of the year should've been a layup, and coverage of the announcement itself was widespread. A missed opportunity like that should worry its awards team. It's not like the movie will drop out of the race entirely, but it could easily lose its status as a real Best Picture contender, and a lot else with it. It's not hard to imagine it as a widely nominated film that ends up with maybe a couple craft wins, just so it doesn't go home with nothing. That would be a disappointing fate for a movie that felt so momentous just a few months ago.
