At the halfway mark of the year, the defining movie of 2025 so far has been Sinners. After an impressive theatrical run, the vampiric horror is now available to stream on HBO Max. The critically acclaimed film will make its HBO linear debut at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 5.
HBO Max will also provide the deaf community with the Black American Sign Language (BASL) version of Sinners.
Michael B. Jordan stars as Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, also known as the Smokestack twins. After years of working for the Chicago mob, the former World War I veterans return to Mississippi and plan to open a juke joint catered to the Black community. Opening night is a success thanks to stiff drinks, lively music, and spirited dancing.
The party comes to an abrupt halt with the arrival of Remmick (Jack O’Connell), an Irish vampire who plans to turn the entire party into blood-sucking creatures. The remaining survivors of the party refuse, leading to an epic battle between the humans and the vampires.
Sinners also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo.
Ryan Coogler wrote, produced, and directed Sinners, his fifth feature film. The vampire tale is one of the best-reviewed movies of the year. In our review, Anthony Orlando gave Coogler’s movie a perfect 5-star review, writing, “Sinners is a fantastic and frightening masterpiece from one of cinema’s best, most ambitious directors.”
What Sinners did at the box office deserves significant praise. In a world flooded with sequels and franchise IP, Coogler made an original R-rated horror on a rumored budget of $100 million. Projected to gross $30 to $40 million domestically in its opening weekend, Sinners debuted to $48 million. What’s even more impressive is the movie’s $45.7 million second weekend, the third-best second-weekend performance for a film that debuted over $40 million. Sinners grossed over $364 million worldwide.
The Sinners phenomenon will likely lead to multiple Oscar nominations. Best Picture and Original Screenplay feel like a lock. Coogler could find himself in Best Director depending on what happens at the fall festival season. Acting nominations will be tougher to achieve, but Jordan, Mosaku, and Canton are strong candidates in their respective categories. Plus, the movie should pick up several below-the-line nominations, including score, costumes, production design, and cinematography.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.