Maybe it’s because it was Easter weekend or perhaps people are on edge that Pope Francis died the day after a bunch of people went to see a movie called “Sinners” on a holy holiday, but Ryan Coogler’s original horror film can’t quite catch a break, at least in some spaces.

After staring down weeks of headlines that his movie — a genre-bending period horror film being released in April (not typically viewed as the place for a box office bonanza) and not based on existing IP (what a concept!) — was risky for both Coogler as a director and Warner Bros. as a studio, we seemingly can’t go a day without someone putting an asterisk on its success.

Online critics of the box office coverage of “Sinners” implied that the media was spinning its opening weekend take in unfair ways. On X (formerly Twitter), Ben Stiller was...