Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Sammie (Miles Canton) facing vampires in Sinners (2025)
(Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Right from the start, Ryan Coogler was on a roll. His first film Fruitvale Station (2013) was based on the true story of Oscar Grant who was fatally shot in the back by a cop while lying on the ground, face down. This incident occurred in Oakland, where Coogler is from. While most filmmakers would choose to focus on this event and its aftermath, Coogler portrayed the last 24 hours of Oscar’s life. As a result, suspense builds as the film goes along because we know he will be killed at the end. Also, because we get to know Oscar as a person, his death hits much harder when it occurs. The budget for this film was only $900,000 and it made $17 million at the box office. Michael B. Jordan, who played Oscar, already shows movie-star potential here. However, no one could have predicted what direction Coogler would take after Fruitvale Station.
Coogler’s next film, Creed (2015), would resurrect the Rocky saga. Michael B. Jordan stars as Adonis Johnson, fathered by boxer Apollo Creed as a part of an extramarital affair. Unlike Rocky in the first film, Adonis has money and a stable future but gives it up to be a professional boxer. He comes down to Philadelphia and convinces Rocky Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone, to become his personal trainer. Sylvester Stallone was skeptical that any more films could be made about Rocky. Yet, Coogler’s persistence won him over. Creed was the first of Coogler’s work I had seen and I was blown away by how good it was. Audiences agreed on its quality and, as a result, there have been two sequels, both featuring Jordan: Creed II (2018) and Creed III (2023). While Coogler did not direct the two sequels, he stayed on as a producer, thus ensuring their high quality. Stallone does not appear in Creed III, as he felt there was nothing left to tell about Rocky Balboa, but is confident that Coogler and Jordan would continue the story he had originally started.
After Creed (2015), Coogler wrote and directed the Marvel studios film Black Panther (2018). Coogler is an avid comic book fan and Black Panther was his favorite comic book hero. Black Panther broke several records. It is the highest grossing film directed by a Black filmmaker, was the ninth highest grossing film at the time of its release, and was the first comic book-based movie to be nominated for best picture.
A sequel was definitely bound to happen, but Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther, passed away from cancer at the young age of 43. To honor his legacy, Coogler decided to continue the Black Panther story. However, in its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), nobody was recast as Black Panther, and instead his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) was the main protagonist. The sequel got positive reviews from critics and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2022. A third Black Panther film is in the works.
Coogler could have rested on his laurels with the successes of Black Panther and Creed, but he decided to challenge himself as a filmmaker by making his first original film since Fruitvale Station. This would be a horror film Sinners (2025) that would be budgeted at $100 million, which is quite high for the genre that has limited audience appeal, as shown by successful horror series such as Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. Yet, Coogler not only secured the budget, but was also able to get a percentage of the film’s box office revenue starting on the opening day. He was also given full creative control of the film’s final cut and its complete ownership after 25 years.
Sinners is set in 1932 during the Jim Crow era. Identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to Clarksdale, Mississippi. Both brothers had fought in World War II and worked for the Chicago mob. Using money stolen from gangsters, they purchased a saw mill in order to transform it into a juke joint (an informal establishment operated primarily by African-Americans where African-American patrons get to enjoy music, dancing, drinking, and gambling). In addition, Smoke and Stack reunite with their lovers Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Mosaku). They also recruit their cousin Sammie (played by real-life musician Miles Caton), a talented blues guitarist, to play music at the juke joint. Sammie’s talent attracts the attention of Remmick, an Irish-immigrant vampire (played by Jack O’Connell). Remmick comes to the joint, asking to be invited in. (A rule of vampires is that they must be invited in a house in order to enter it.) He is refused, but is able to take advantage of patrons coming and going as he bites them and they turn into vampires. They go back to the juke joint and are invited in as the people inside the joint don’t know what they have become. Eventually, Remmick builds an army of vampires, trapping the remaining humans in the juke joint. The survivors must figure out how to survive until sunrise.
Two aspects separate Sinners from other horror films. First, Remmick is one of the most intelligent villains in horror cinema. As a stranger, he is able to enter the house of a KKK couple. In addition, while he is initially banned from the juke joint, he is able to convince the people that he is harmless and means well. When he doesn’t get in, he turns patrons into vampires, slowly building his army.
The other unique aspect of Sinners is that it is as much a racial period drama as it is a horror film. For the first 45 minutes, we are simply introduced to the characters and their environment. We learn why the brothers left Clarksdale. We also learn how other people who did not leave have to cope in this environment and how a juke joint provides an escape from their daily hardships. Even Remmick and his vampire army during their attack on the juke joint are more accepting of Black people than the Whites of Jim Crow-era are. If Sinners has one flaw, it is that the ending occurs after the credits roll and as a result many people missed it. Still, for those that do see it, it is another reminder that this is primarily a racial period drama, for it tells us what happened to some of the main characters.
While it is clear that Sinners is a good movie, can it recoup its $100 million budget? The answer is it certainly can. It was number 1 at the box office for two weeks, immediately making its money back. In its third week, it is still holding strong at second place. It has already grossed $191 million domestically and $57 million overseas for a grand total of $236 million worldwide.
This is very encouraging to people like me who long for, but rarely get the chance to see, an original film on the big screen. These days, most of the films are comic books and/or sequels as an original film is considered too risky of an investment. Two years ago, we got Oppenheimer, which showed that audiences will flock to an original film. Now Sinners has demonstrated again that audiences crave a decent original film. Hopefully, the box office success of both films will assure Hollywood that it is a good idea to start making more original films.
Coogler’s journey has included a small film, the Rocky franchise, comic book movies, and now a big-budget horror film. Coogler put his heart and soul into each of these movies. As a result, they were all very good and had box office success. With his solid track record, we can expect to see more great work from Ryan Coogler in years to come.
