The “sinners” cinematographic rights agreement by Ryan Coogler will money? A lawyer explains

After years making films based on existing intellectual property such as Marvel Comics and Apollo Creed, Ryan Coogler finally made an original film. He could pay dividends for the rest of his life.

The unique terms of the coogler agreement with Warner Bros. For his vampire film which peels the genre “Sinners” gives the property of the 38 -year -old filmmaker in 25 years, putting him in a rare company with authors like Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, who both won similar agreements.

And with the “sinners” becoming a feeling at the box office – it brought back more than $ 200 million at the national level, making it the second highest North American release in 2025 – Coogle could have their hands under a silver tap.

“He earns a lot of money now and has the potential to earn money in 25 years thanks to the property,” Jonathan Handel, a veteran lawyer for entertainment and technology from the Figure Finel, told Business Insider. “But he rolls the dice.”

Will this bet pay and how, exactly, could it coogulate or lose money on the agreement?

Although Handel did not see the contract between Coogler and Warner Bros., he used his experiences of experience by negotiating contracts for administrators and stars to guide us through certain scenarios to explain what could happen when Coogler finds the rights to “sinners”.

Offers like Coogler came with creative control – but they are not a white check

There are different ways in which a filmmaker can have his own work. Some use a tactic known as “negative pick-up”, in which the filmmaker finds the funding and makes the film by themselves, then sells the finished project to a studio, which distributes it and does marketing.

Mr. Night Shyamalan did it with Universal for the 2019 “Glass” thriller, and more recently, Francis Ford Coppola did it with Lionsgate for “Megalopolis” (the difference between the two is that Coppola has kept the copyright of the film).

Others self-distribute, passing the side of a studio or a distributor and an invoice place for the entire version. For example, Steven Soderbergh launched fingerprints for the race for his 2017 “Logan Lucky” breakage film, while Taylor Swift concluded agreements directly with the theater channels for the release of his Eras Tour concert film in 2023.

But it is extremely rare to ensure that a studio agrees to make the rights of one of his films to the filmmaker after a certain period of time.

Many authors who like this advantage have made their debut on the independent cinematographic scene, where the practice was more common. Jim Jarmusch prompted most of his films, while Quentin Tarantino has “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” because he has concluded an agreement with Sony which acquired him in the rights he had since the days “Pulp Fiction” with Harvey Weinstein in Miramax films.

Creatively, the agreement was something that coogus said he needed. He previously declared to Business Insider that his only motivation for the agreement was to underline the themes of the film on the black ownership, because the two main characters, both played by Michael B. Jordan, decided to have a juke joint in the south of Jim Crow before things take a bloody turn.

Handel noted that by putting pressure on property in 2050, coogling literally and symbolically bet on itself, and the perspective that “sinners” will always be in public conscience in two decades and more.

“Coogling would have obtained more money in advance if it had not pushed the property,” he said. “You have to give something to get something in negotiation. He therefore definitely bet that it will have value in 25 years.”

Coogling could conclude a major license agreement if the new technology changes the way we consume films after 2050

According to Handel, Coogler could really take if there is a major change in the way we watch the films after finding the rights to “sinners”.

For example, if we suddenly watch films on an immersive 3D platform and “Sinners” belongs to coogler, it could win millions by landing license agreements to see the film in this format.

However, if this technology becomes the streaming of tomorrow before the rights of “sinners” come back to coogulate in 25 years, the director could miss, because Warner Bros. Could choose not to convert the title to this platform, that is to say because of something called “holdback”, in which the terms are agreed in which coogling cannot exercise aspects of Copyright for a certain period.

“In this case, WB could make a restraint where there can be no new version created in the five years following the return of rights,” said Handel.

Although it is only a hypothetical, Handel said that it was an example of the level of complexity that could be in the contract that Warner Bros. and coogler signed.

Even if Coogle does not have the rights to the consequences of “sinners”, it could always cash

The end of the “sinners” alludes to a potential franchise, and in 25 years, coogling would be in control to do whatever he wants by building this. But there is a good chance that Warner Bros. would like a sequel – maybe even more than one – much earlier than 2050.

When this moment arrives, many questions about payment will depend on who has the following rights. The representatives of Coogler and Warner Bros. did not respond to a request for a comment on which holds these rights.

Even if Coogler does not have the rights to the consequences, Handel said he was still enjoying it. Coogler would always have a participation in profits on all the follow -ups, as he did on the first film, and if Warner Bros. wanted to make any type of box in 25 years, they should conclude an agreement with coogler to have the first film involved.

“He has the upper hand, because if I am Warners and I have the other photos, I have to go to Ryan and agree with him,” said Handel.

So, how much money could he earn once the rights of “sinners” come back to him? Matthew Belloni reports in Puck put this figure at around $ 1 million a year, based on the predictions of Hollywood initiates who focus on film libraries and license agreements. But Handel is not convinced that any figure can be placed on the agreement from now on.

“Affirm that you can make a prediction like that of fantastic lands,” he said to Bi, noting that there are too many unknown variables to predict what coogling could earn “sinners” 25 years in the future.

What he is sure is that the coogler’s agreement left the rest of Hollywood interested and intrigued: “High -level directors have conversations with their representatives on this subject.”