Michael B. Jordan has solidified his spot as a global movie star capable of leading a variety of movies over the years. This has largely been done as he’s attached himself to a variety of IP. That’s proven to be a smart strategy at the box office, with Michael B. Jordan’s best movies often finding their intended audiences.

After being part of the surprise superhero success with Chronicle in 2012, the actor was cast as the lead in two major franchise relaunches for 2015. This is where he debuted as Adonis Creed in Ryan Coogler’s Creed, the soft-reboot of the Rocky franchise, and played Human Torch in Fox’s second attempt at Fantastic Four. The latter was a huge misfire, but Creed revived a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ franchise that’s become a trilogy for Jordan.

The biggest success of Michael B. Jordan’s career remains 2018’s Black Panther, where he played the villainous Erik Killmonger. That movie made $1.3 billion worldwide, and Jordan has reaped the rewards of that performance in the years since. Creed II had a $40 million increase over the original’s $174 million performance, and Creed III then set a new franchise high at $276 million in 2023.

Now, Jordan is once again relishing the success of a major hit, as Sinners made $365 million. His vampire movie reunion with Coogler set box office records after earning the reputation as one of 2025’s best movies. Sinners is sure to be a defining film in Jordan’s career, and it provides a valuable lesson that can be applied going forward.

Michael B. Jordan Should Make More Original Movies After Sinners

His Upcoming Slate Is Filled With IP

One of the best things about Sinners is that it is an entirely original movie with new characters and a fresh story. Vampire movies have been around for a long time, but Coogler and Jordan found a way to make their version stand apart. It’s notable that they took this path rather than trying to adapt an existing IP to help at the box office or tackle something even bigger, like Blade, for Marvel Studios.

It would be great to see Jordan take a similar approach to the rest of his career. There’s a time and a place for using IP, but the fact of the matter is that his past and future filmography is overstuffed with franchises, sequels, remakes, reboots, or any other type of adaptation that makes the film a non-original.

Before making Sinners, the 2014 romantic comedy That Awkward Moment was Jordan’s last wholly original film. He followed that up with Fantastic Four (reboot), Creed (reboot/sequel), Black Panther (franchise/comic adaptation), Fahrenheit 451 (remake/book adaptation), Kin (short adaptation), Creed II (sequel), Just Mercy (true story adaptation), Without Remorse (reboot/book adaptation), Space Jam: A New Legacy (sequel/reboot), A Journal for Jourdan (memoir adaptation), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (sequel), and Creed III (sequel).

Sinners was the first original movie Jordan has put his star power behind in nearly a decade, and there’s not another one in sight, unfortunately. His upcoming projects will see him remake The Thomas Crown Affair, join Will Smith for I Am Legend 2, return for Creed IV, headline a Rainbow Six adaptation, and a true story film with Coogler called Wrong Answer. All those movies are exciting in their own right, but they’re all non-original stories.

Based on the success of Sinners and the clear abundance of IP at his fingertips, Jordan is the type of star who can help get more original movies made in Hollywood. Using his Thomas Crown Affair remake as an example, he could have created a similar film without relying on IP to produce something new rather than remaking this property again.

Since many of these projects were already in development before Sinners became a mega box office success, hopefully, Michael B. Jordan will recalibrate his approach a bit going forward. With his stardom, a successful production company in Outlier Society, and an overall deal with Amazon MGM, there’s no reason he can’t help push forward more original movies with a track record for success as good as his.