Why ‘SINNERS’ Is A Protest Movie

The blockbuster film’s success disproves two prevalent, biased Hollywood narratives

Image credit: Warner Bros.

Do you know that SINNERS, directed by Ryan Coogler, is a protest film?

No, I’m not saying that it was intended to be, but it is all the same. The hit movie is helping invalidate two prevailing narratives in Hollywood:

• Audiences are no longer interested in movies telling original stories
• Black movies — not centered in slave narratives and Black trauma — are only of interest to Black moviegoers and have little potential for commercial success

The box office success of SINNERS defies both of those misconceptions in dramatic and undeniable fashion.

Hollywood is only giving audiences what they want

Before the release of Iron Man in 2008, Hollywood did produce superhero films that were box office successes.

Films such as the first two Superman films starring Christopher Reeve, Blade starring Wesley Snipes, director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and Twentieth Century FOX’s X-Men franchise proved sagas about super-powered people wearing leather, spandex, and tights could pack-in theaters.