This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Sinners taking a bite out of the spring box office. Ryan Coogler‘s music-drenched vampire yarn officially opened in theaters on April 18 and went on to gross nearly $300 million in the U.S. alone. Months later, the film morphed into an awards season monster, ultimately entering the Oscar history books by scoring an unprecedented 16 nominations. It ultimately won four statuettes, including Best Original Screenplay for its writer-director and Best Actor for star Michael B. Jordan.
That’s a trajectory that 2026’s current box-office champion, Project Hail Mary, certainly hopes to follow once the 2027 Oscar cycle kicks into gear. But does the Ryan Gosling space odyssey have the right stuff to go all the way? That’s the jumping off point for this week’s Awards Magnet, which finds Gold Derby editors sorting through the releases from the young year’s first quarter in search of the next Sinners.
Besides Project Hail Mary, another potential contender is The Drama, the buzzy A24 dramedy starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. There’s also Ian McKellen‘s masterful star turn in The Christophers to consider, and a pair of awards-worthy performances in January horror movies — Ralph Fiennes in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Rachel McAdams in Send Help. But the January through March corridor saw plenty of Oscar pretenders as well, with Wuthering Heights and Hoppers already moving to the margins of the early awards conversation. Fortunately, they can take home the prize for being commercial success stories.
Watch the latest episode of Awards Magnet above or listen on your podcast platform of choice. And be sure to send your thoughts, comments, voicemails and favorite Rachel McAdams line from Game Night to awardsmagnet@goldderby.com.
