Director Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, the new horror film starring Michael B. Jordan, is one of the more intriguing releases of the spring, and now it’s shaping up to be one of the most acclaimed. Ahead of the movie’s release on April 18th, the first wave of reviews has been published, and critics have universal praise for it. As of this writing, 34 reviews have been submitted on Rotten Tomatoes, and Sinners boasts a very impressive 100% score on the aggregate. A critics consensus hasn’t been revealed just yet, but a scan over the reviews indicate Coogler’s strong storytelling and craftsmanship and Michael B. Jordan’s captivating performance as twin brothers are among the movie’s highlights.
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Throughout his career, Coogler has always earned widespread acclaim. All of his previous directorial efforts are Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes: Fruitvale Station (94%), Creed (95%), Black Panther (95%), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (84%).
Jordan headlines Sinners as Smoke and Stack, two siblings who return to their hometown and deal with the arrival of sinister forces. The cast also includes the likes of Hailee Steinfeld and Jack O’Connell. Early box office projections for Sinners have indicated the film should be a draw, with a $40+ million opening weekend estimated.
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Coogler has discussed how Sinners is a personal project for him, as it takes inspiration from his family’s history in Mississippi. When explaining why he delayed Marvel’s Black Panther 3 to make Sinners, he said it was important to do Sinners now after realizing his previous works had been “in the service of stories that were outside myself.”
The Sinners Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t going to stay perfect forever; there are still several reviews to be published between now and the film’s release, and some of them will likely skew negative (Coogler’s earlier movies received somewhere between 212-527 reviews). Still, Sinners is obviously off to a terrific start and it’s probably only a matter of time before it’s the latest Coogler film to become Certified Fresh. The enthusiastic word of mouth should be a boon for Sinner‘s box office prospects, which is a great sign for Warner Bros. as the studio looks to rebound from some notable pre-Minecraft Movie bombs. Sinners will play in IMAX and sounds like it’s a must-see on the big screen. If its box office performance is as successful as the critical response, Coogler will have even more clout to get future original projects off the ground, which is very exciting.
If the next batch of Sinners reviews are as exuberant as this first crop, it will be interesting to see if the film could find itself in the awards race later this year. The Academy has a tendency to ignore horror films and the April release date puts Sinners at a bit of a disadvantage, but its blending of poignant social commentary and blockbuster genre entertainment could prove to be a combination too good to deny. Coogler’s films have received traction on the Oscar circuit before, and while there’s still a long way to go in 2025, Sinners seems like it will go down as one of the year’s best.
