Tom Cruise has lent his voice to urging his devoted followers to catch "Sinners," while star Michael B. Jordan couldn't help but voice his thoughts on the matter. On a sun-kissed Sunday, Cruise took a brief hiatus from hyping his forthcoming sequel, "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning," to share a snap on Instagram from inside a theater, clutching two tickets for Ryan Coogler's genre-bending smash hit.
"Congratulations, Ryan, Michael, and to the entire extraordinary cast and crew," Cruise penned with heartfelt admiration. "A must-watch in theaters, stay till the end credits roll!" Jordan, in turn, responded by reposting Cruise's post on his Instagram stories, accompanied by a mind-blown emoji and the caption, "Nah, this is wild…!"
"Sinners" has enjoyed an incredibly impressive second weekend at the box office, defying expectations and retaining its domestic crown with an astonishing $45.7 million. This marks one of the smallest week-two drops in cinematic history for a film released outside the year-end holiday season, effectively silencing early skepticism about its $90 million budget. The R-rated supernatural thriller has also garnered a perfect audience score, amassing a staggering $163 million globally.
Previously hailed by Steven Spielberg as the savior of cinema with his 2022 blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick" ("Seriously, 'Maverick' might have rescued the entire theatrical landscape," Spielberg remarked), Cruise has emerged as an annual summer cinema ambassador. Besides championing "Sinners," the actor has also promoted "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" (2023) and "Twisters" (2024).
However, Cruise's promotion is also a stroke of genius. "Sinners" has dominated movie chatter for two consecutive weeks, and tickets for "MI:8" hit the market widely on Monday morning. Leveraging Coogler's buzzworthy hit is a clever way to draw additional attention to Cruise and the impending "MI:8" (as evidenced by this very story). Cruise's last "Mission: Impossible" film, "Dead Reckoning" (2023), received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and fans (scoring a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but it was deemed a mild underperformer at the box office.
Cruise's new film premieres on May 23, clashing with Disney's animated comedy "Lilo & Stitch," which is anticipated to be a monster hit. Some predict that "Mission" and "Stitch" could become the next Barbenheimer-like phenomenon over the Memorial Day weekend (albeit suffering from a lack of a catchy portmanteau — FinalStitch? ReckonStitch? StitchPossible?).
As for "Sinners," Coogler's fifth directorial venture is set in 1932, featuring Jordan in dual roles as identical twin entrepreneurs known as Smoke and Stack. Having survived the treacherous trenches of World War I and the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago gangland, the brothers return to their segregated hometown of Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta after seven years. Flush with cash, a truckload of liquor, and dreams of opening a juke joint, they encounter unforeseen horrors that test their resilience.
