Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was expected to cost $80m. But when it went over that amount, Coogler stepped in to cover the extra costs.
When it was first announced that director Ryan Coogler had a new film up his sleeve, starring regular collaborator Michael B Jordan, it didn’t take long for a bidding war to ignite. Warner Bros spent big to acquire the movie in February 2024, that was soon revealed to be called Sinners. A period vampire film, it’s going out with an R-rating in the US, and had a budget of $80m set aside for it.
A new piece at The Hollywood Reporter now suggests that a few difficulties hit the production of the movie, to the point where the cost of the movie has gone up to around $100m. As part of the deal to make the film, Warner Bros agreed to give Ryan Coogler the rights back to the movie after a set period of time (it’s not known exactly how many years it’ll take for that.)
As part of this, it appears that Warner Bros isn’t going to be out of pocket for the budget going a little north too. It’s being reported that Ryan Coogler will be covering the extra funds from his own back end deal on the movie, and up front fee. Given that he’s ultimately going to be owning the negative at some point down the line, there’s a degree of sense to that, too.
Early signs are that Warner Bros has a modest hit on its hands with Sinners, too. Box office tracking suggests an opening weekend in the $30-40m range, which would be a very decent return in the current climate, not least for an R-rated picture.
Sinners will be opening in cinemas on 18th April 2025. Hopefully, it’ll get a little more than 17 days in cinemas to make its mark. More as we hear it.
