For over a decade, the Conjuring Universe has been one of the horror genre’s most reliable box office draws. Between a trio of mainline entries and several spinoffs, the franchise has collectively grossed over $2.2 billion worldwide. Given the property’s track record at the box office, expectations were fairly high for this weekend’s The Conjuring: Last Rites — which is said to be the last time franchise staples Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson will portray paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren. Box office numbers are starting to come in, and Last Rites is shaping up to be a bigger hit than anticipated.
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According to Variety, The Conjuring: Last Rites grossed $34.5 million domestically on Friday, September 5th (that figure also includes earnings from Thursday preview screenings). That is the biggest opening day in the history of the Conjuring Universe, easily surpassing the $22 million grossed by The Nun back in 2018.
The Conjuring: Last Rites Will Exceed Box Office Projections
Heading into the weekend, The Conjuring: Last Rites was projected to earn around $40+ million in the United States during its opening weekend. That put it on pace to potentially score the biggest domestic debut for a mainline Conjuring film. As of this writing, the franchise’s largest opening weekend belongs to The Nun, which earned $53.8 million over its first three days — but it looks like the spinoff’s record is about to be broken.
Last Rites is set to become the latest 2025 horror movie to exceed initial box office estimates. The likes of Sinners, Final Destination Bloodlines, and Weapons all performed better than expected in their respective debuts. Taking advantage of weak competition throughout August, Weapons has dominated the box office charts for the past month, winning three out of its first four weekends. Bloodlines was so successful that a new Final Destination film has been greenlit.
Whereas the trio of Sinners, Final Destination Bloodlines, and Weapons earned positive reviews (all three have Certified Fresh critics’ scores on Rotten Tomatoes), reception to The Conjuring: Last Rites has been decidedly more mixed (55% Rotten Tomatoes score as of this writing). That makes the film’s massive opening day somewhat surprising, as it didn’t get a boost from enthusiastic word of mouth. That Last Rites is faring so well at the box office speaks to the power of the Conjuring Universe brand. Even on the heels of the critically acclaimed Weapons, moviegoers still had a large appetite for another high-profile horror movie.
It’ll be interesting to see how high The Conjuring: Last Rites‘ opening weekend will end up. It seems all but a given it will cruise past The Nun to score the franchise’s biggest debut. Depending on how things pan out on Saturday, it even has a chance to out-gross Marvel’s Thunderbolts* (which opened with $74.3 million in May). Regardless, it’s safe to say The Conjuring: Last Rites will go down as another major win at the box office for Warner Bros. It wasn’t that long ago there were concerns about the studio’s long-term future amidst numerous commercial disappointments, but now WB has strung together a long line of hits, combining established franchise fare with intriguing original titles.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm
