Flipboard Culture Desk<p>Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" is a bona fide smash — it made $48 million in the U.S. in its first weekend, then had a mere 6% decline in its second. Critics adore it too. So why have outlets from The New York Times to Variety been equivocating over its success? Um, racism? "The film industry always acts like hit pictures from people of color are anomalies, preferring to stubbornly hedge their bets on franchise fare that’ll land those precious four quadrants [male and female, under and over 25]," writes <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@AVClub" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>AVClub</span></a></span>'s Craig D. Lindsay. "But, as African-American auteurs like Coogler and Jordan Peele have shown, non-IP popcorn films starring people of various shades will attract many people of many shades at the box office — and these young Blerds are making the powerful white people look bad!"</p><p><a href="https://flip.it/ErZPAs" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">flip.it/ErZPAs</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p><p><a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Movies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Movies</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Cinema" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Cinema</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Film</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Entertainment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Entertainment</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Race" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Race</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/RyanCoogler" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RyanCoogler</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Sinners" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Sinners</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/BlackMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastodon</span></a> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/blackmastodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>blackmastodon</span></a></span></p>