Sinners made $350 million. Marty Supreme made $60 million. Hollywood looked at both numbers and decided Chalamet is the bigger star.
That’s the argument culture critic Touré is laying out in a TikTok video gaining traction this week — and the logic behind it is more brutal than the headline.
Touré, a veteran media voice and former MTV, BET, and MSNBC correspondent, is clear that he’s not offering personal opinion. He’s reporting what industry insiders told him. Whether that makes the argument easier to hear or harder is up to you.
@toureshowThis is not my opinion. It’s my reporting.♬ original sound – Toure YT: ToureTube
The $350 Million That Didn’t Count
According to Touré, Sinners isn’t being treated as a Michael B. Jordan win. It’s being treated as a Ryan Coogler win.
The director walked away with all the credit. He’s now mentioned in the same breath as Christopher Nolan, Jordan Peele, Quentin Tarantino — filmmakers who get projects greenlit on name recognition alone. His next script will move faster. He’ll be offered more money, more creative control.
Most directors go to studios asking for permission. Directors at Coogler’s level get pitched to. Studios come to them and ask what they can do for them. That’s the tier Sinners put him on.
Jordan starred in the film. Produced it. Walked away with none of that leverage.
Meanwhile, Chalamet’s $60 million for Marty Supreme is being read as proof that audiences will show up for him in anything — no franchise, no IP, no built-in awareness. Just him.
Six times less money. All of the credit.
The Line That Decides Everything
Touré’s framework is simple. In modern Hollywood, there are two tiers of movie stars: those who succeed inside franchises, and those who can open original films on their name alone.
Jordan’s biggest hits — Creed, Black Panther — were massive. But the industry’s read is that audiences showed up for Rocky’s legacy and the Marvel brand. Jordan was in those films. He wasn’t the reason for them.
When he stepped outside that lane, it didn’t go well. A Journal for Jordan, a 2021 drama directed by Denzel Washington, was a genuine departure — an emotional story about a soldier writing letters to his son from Iraq. No action. No franchise. A chance to show range.
It flopped. One movie. One result. Hollywood treated it like a verdict: audiences don’t want him that way.
His upcoming slate tells the rest of the story. Thomas Crown Affair remake. Creed 4. I Am Legend 2. A reported Miami Vice reboot. Franchise after franchise after franchise.
Whether that’s his choice or his only option is a question worth asking. Black actors in Hollywood have historically been funneled into action roles with fewer opportunities to cross into the prestige-driven originals that build “top-tier” reputations. When one of those attempts underperforms, it tends to get treated as confirmation rather than a single data point.
Chalamet Plays a Different Game
Within eight months, Chalamet released Wonka and Dune: Part Two — $634 million and $715 million. That bought him the leverage to make A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme, smaller originals with no safety net.
Both worked. Hollywood’s conclusion: he doesn’t need IP. People just show up.
That’s top-tier access. That’s what Jordan, according to this framework, still doesn’t have.
Touré points to Zendaya as another example of what that tier looks like in practice. She’s doing Dune: Part Three and Spider-Man 4 — the franchise obligations. But she’s also making an original A24 dramedy with Robert Pattinson and a Ronnie Spector biopic. Originals that got greenlit because she wanted to make them.
Top-tier stars do franchises because they’re smart. They do originals because they can.
The Math Hollywood Actually Uses
Touré is clear he’s reporting perception, not personal opinion. But in this industry, perception is the only math that counts.
Jordan’s career total as a lead sits around $1 billion. Chalamet’s is closer to $2 billion. The gap is real. But even if it weren’t, it might not change anything — because Hollywood isn’t adding up totals. It’s asking who gets the credit.
Jordan made $350 million for Ryan Coogler. Chalamet made $60 million for himself.
That’s the game. Whether it should be is a different conversation.
