Early in the hit 2025 film Sinners, a supernatural vampire film set in the 1930s Mississippi Delta, one of the main characters, Smoke, asks a young girl to guard his truck while he visits a store. The truck is full of Irish beer that he and his twin brother, Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan), have stocked up to sell at the juke joint they’re building. Smoke offers the girl 10 cents a minute for the job. When she readily accepts, Smoke rejects the deal, telling her, “You gotta negotiate.” He then coaches the girl to name a higher price. She asks for 50 cents; he counters with 20, and they close on a mutually beneficial agreement.
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The scene shows a softer side of Smoke—an eagerness to teach a young person a valuable life lesson—than previously seen in the film. And it’s one of many negotiations in Sinners, which depicts Black characters chasing joy and freedom in the Jim Crow South.
Ryan Coogler, the film’s producer, writer, and director, clearly values the importance of negotiating effectively, both onscreen and off. His negotiations with Warner Bros. to develop and release Sinners attracted considerable attention—and offer lessons for career negotiations and beyond.
Teeing Himself Up for Success
As the creative force behind several recent blockbusters—Creed, Black Panther, and its sequel—Coogler entered negotiations with movie studios to produce Sinners with a stellar track record: His films had earned nearly $2.5 billion in the global box office and were critically acclaimed as well.
In addition to his bankable talent, Coogler brought another appealing source of negotiating leverage to the table: independent financing. Traditionally, film studios finance movies themselves, absorbing both successes and failures—making movies a high-risk business. Increasingly, however, filmmakers have begun to negotiate financing with independent parties, such as private equity firms, before approaching studios.
“Producers who put together their films along with independent financiers enter the room with an inherent advantage,” writes Jon Gosier in Variety. A filmmaker “holds a lot of cards if they come with a partner offering to pay for half the movie,” Gosier says.
Coogler reportedly negotiated an investment agreement with Domain Entertainment, a division of private equity firm Domain Capital. He was then able to bring that financing to the table in his negotiations with studios.
Creative Negotiations
Not surprisingly, Coogler’s reputation, a strong script, and financing whipped up a bidding war among film studios, according to the Los Angeles Times. Competition between bidders further positioned Coogler to ask for what he wanted, which included some nonstandard deal terms.
To begin with, Coogler negotiated for first-dollar gross, or a cut of the film’s gross sales starting on opening day. By comparison, most directors don’t get a percentage of sales until the studio has recouped its expenses, according to Variety. In addition, Coogler wanted final say on the last cut of the film.
Most noteworthy was Coogler’s desire for ownership of the film to revert to him after 25 years. The request was “something rare in an age when building a library of [intellectual property] is more valuable for studios than ever before,” according to IndieWire. Rare—“but not unprecedented,” writes Tiana Clark in the New York Times. Directors Quentin Tarantino, Mel Gibson, Richard Linklater, and Peter Jackson all negotiated similar arrangements for various films.
For Coogler, this deal term was symbolic, deeply personal, and unique to Sinners. The film tells the story of twin Black sharecroppers opening a lively juke joint, only to be menaced on opening night by enemies ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to actual vampires. It references how Black blues musicians such as Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson were swindled out of royalties by record companies. Given these themes, “it makes sense to ask for this,” Coogler told IndieWire.
A Win-Win Agreement
Coogler ultimately closed what looked like a mutually beneficial agreement with Warner Bros. that included a $90 million budget for Sinners and all his other requested terms.
A Vulture article cast Coogler’s negotiation for ownership rights (after 25 years) in alarmist terms, quoting an executive who said the deal might set a precedent that “could end the studio system.”
“That’s a bit hyperbolic,” writes Ryan Faughnder in the Los Angeles Times. In the future, he predicts, such an arrangement is likely to be “reserved for the most exceptional filmmakers” rather than standard practice. And, as Coogler himself said in an interview, “Nothing about this deal is a new thing.”
For Warner Bros., Domain Entertainment, and Coogler, the negotiations have already paid off: Sinners won rave reviews from critics and moviegoers alike, and grossed $63.5 million its opening weekend.
Scenes from a Mutually Beneficial Agreement
Take a page from Coogler’s negotiating script:
- Look beyond short-term monetary concerns. Coogler avoided the common tendency among business negotiators to focus myopically on getting good financial terms. He identified several other issues he cared about over the long term and strategized about how to secure them.
- Reduce your counterpart’s risk. By first negotiating financing from an outside firm, Coogler savvily reduced the financial risk studios would take on and positioned himself to get more of what he wanted from them.
- Hold an auction and An auction can drum up interest, but don’t limit yourself to a price competition. Instead, combine the best of both worlds with a “negotiauction.”
What elements of this mutually beneficial agreement might you put into practice in your own career and business negotiations?
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Discover how to boost your power at the bargaining table in this FREE special report, Dealmaking: Secrets of Successful Dealmaking in Business Negotiations, from Harvard Law School.
