The 83rd Golden Globe Awards show was one of the few exciting award shows in recent years. The January 12th event was an exciting time for many, especially the cast and crew of the hit 2025 horror film SINNERS. The film won two awards at the event, the Golden Globe Award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.
Directed by Ryan Coogler, SINNERS follows the return of twin WWI veteran turned mobsters Smoke and Stack Moore to their Mississippi home in 1932. There, they open a juke joint for the locals with the money they earned, but a deadly group of vampires threatens to turn their fun deadly.
The movie was a standout success not only for its cinematography but for the exploration of themes unique to the time and place of the film’s setting. However, SINNER’s biggest success was the deal Coogler made with Warner Bros. Pictures.
Coogler managed to do something that rarely any major black filmmaker has done before, retained a majority of creative control and eventual ownership of the SINNERS franchise. The deal was highly unusual, a far cry from the typical strict studio control of most well-known film franchises.
The deal was a bold statement and marked a growing shift that urges more filmmakers to fight for the ownership of their own products. For a majority of time in the industry, movies drew audiences in due to the studio’s brand recognition. However, recent decades have seen film directors becoming a growing reason for audience interest in a film. Big names like Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Jordan Peele, Steven Spielberg, and more have become so high-status that people will go see a movie if their name is attached to it, and now Ryan Coogler is expected to join their ranks.
It is a celebratory moment, particularly for Black creatives, due in part to how hard it has been for Black creators to retain rights to their own creative projects and profit from them. Coogler’s successful deal has now allowed him to generate his own wealth and foster the development of future black creators with funding.
Additionally, SINNERS has showcased what audiences have been wishing for recently, to push out original ideas and create new franchises, and not stay stagnant with sequels and remakes of old intellectual property.
