Weekend projections: Sinners tops Easter weekend chart with impressive $45.6 million

Sinners will, somewhat ironically, take the box office crown this Easter weekend, with an impressive $45.6 million. That’s just enough to knock A Minecraft Movie out of top spot, as the video-game movie falls about 47% to $41.3 million in its third weekend. The King of Kings is making the most of the religious holiday, finishing in third spot with $17.3 million, just 11% down from its opening number last weekend.

Here are the official studio projections for the three-day weekend (click the image for a full chart of all films reporting so far):

The performance of Sinners vindicates Warner Bros.’ heads, Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, who had faced criticism for large investments in auteur-driven films like Joker: Folie à Deux, Mickey 17 and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s upcoming The Bride!.

Not every big swing will pay off, and honestly it’s unlikely that the profits from Sinners will make up for the losses on Joker and Mickey 17, but only studios with the financial resources of Warner Bros. can take on ambitious projects of this size. If F1 hits in June, which is looking likely, the strategy will start to look smart from a financial perspective, and if WB commits to it long term, they can count on being the first place top filmmakers shop their projects—surely the goal of any studio?

The long-term prospects for Sinners looks bright, with our model predicting a domestic total of $135 million this morning. Its reviews and remarkably high CinemaScore (it’s reportedly the first horror movie in 35 years to get an “A” rating), bode well for long legs. Hitting $150 million in North America looks like a good bet. Its international prospects are a little worse, with $15.4 million from its opening weekend internationally. That might pick up as word spreads, but the movie was always going to be a tougher sell abroad. A $200-million final global tally looks a good bet.

Warner Bros. other hit film, A Minecraft Movie is taking a bit of a dip domestically this weekend, but is already a box office juggernaut, with $720.8 million in the bank worldwide so far. Its $41.3 million domestic weekend means that Warner Bros. is the first studio in over a decade to have two movies gross over $40 million on the same weekend, per Gitesh Pandya.

Also of note, The King of Kings will have a terrific hold this weekend, and is the clear go-to movie for people celebrating Easter this weekend.

– Studio weekend projections

– All-time top-grossing movies in North America

– All-time top-grossing movies worldwide

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Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com