Ryan Coogler has a natural gift for making box office-grossing movies. From his debut indie film, Fruitvale Station, making $17 million, to the recently-released Sinners making bank at $292.4 million, I’d say the American filmmaker is doing very well for himself. While Coogler’s 2025 movie release continues to make “a lot of money off it now,” there’s no telling how long this can go on for.
Sinners may have been a mainstream movie currently owned by Warner Bros., but Ryan Coogler made sure to seek out full ownership of his horror flick in 25 years to emphasize its themes of Black ownership. While the genre-bending movie is a real success now, veteran entertainment and technology attorney, Jonathan Handel, told Business Insider that there’s no telling if Sinners’ money-making train will continue rolling by 2050:
He’s making a lot of money off it now and has the potential to make money 25 years from now through ownership. But he’s rolling the dice.
Jonathan Handel continued to say that Ryan Coogler would have gotten more money up front if he hadn’t pushed for ownership. It’s clear that the Black Panther director has a lot of faith in his passion project if he’s betting on his movie still having the same value and appeal 25 years from now.
Many up-and-coming filmmakers in the indie scene have been known to take ownership of their movies. Quentin Tarantino sure did owning Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood after his deal with Sony, as well as Coffee and Cigarettes’ Jim Jarmusch owning most of his movies.
Sinners had the biggest opening weekend for an original movie of 2025 at $45.6 million and an astonishing second weekend, bringing the movie to $100 million domestically. Before we knew it, the Michael B. Jordan-led movie crossed a major milestone by raking in $200 million domestically in its fourth weekend, which hasn’t been done for an original movie since 2017’s Coco. With all of these big numbers and audiences taking so well to the vampire movie, it’s natural to believe its accomplishments will keep going.
Jonathan Handel also theorized that Sinners could continue to be profitable if the way we watch movies changes by 2050. If audiences have access to watching 3D movies, the Creed director could earn millions through licensing agreements. However, if these innovative watching practices occur before Ryan Coogler has a chance to own the rights, Sinners is still in Warner Bros.’ control, which can choose not to make the movie 3D or through a “holdback” that delays certain rights.
If a Sinners sequel is in the cards, Ryan Coogler would have full control and profits if it’s made 25 years later. But assuming Warner Bros. will hurry up with Sinners 2 way before 2050, Jonathan Handel assumes the Academy Award-nominated director might miss out unless he’s directly part of the project.
Sinners is considered one of 2025’s most successful movies, but there’s no guarantee money will keep coming in once ownership rights revert to Ryan Coogler in 25 years. But once the musical-horror film’s rights go back to Coogler in 2050, it’s predicted that movie libraries and licensing deals can make the director $1 million a year.
While it’s hard to know what will be considered a classic decades from now, we’ll leave it to future audiences and industry experts to see if the film will stand the test of time. For now, you can continue seeing Sinners playing in theaters.