There have been several successful Stephen King adaptations released over the years, but none have been bigger at the box office than 2017’s IT. Premiering to widespread critical praise, that film isn’t just the highest-grossing King adaptation of all time, it’s also the highest-grossing horror movie ever (unadjusted for inflation). Bolstered by the positive word of mouth, IT came storming out of the gates by posting a $179.2 million opening at the worldwide box office, a record for the genre. That strong start helped fuel what ended up being a $704.1 million global theatrical run. After eight years, one of IT‘s biggest box office records has been broken.
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Per Deadline, The Conjuring: Last Rites earned a whopping $194 million globally during its opening weekend, meaning it’s surged past IT‘s mark by nearly $15 million. The horror sequel debuted with $84 million domestically and $110 million in international markets, wildly exceeding the initial box office projections.
How The Conjuring: Last Rites Beat IT‘s Record
The Conjuring: Last Rites was always expected to do well at the box office, but nobody predicted it to rewrite the history books. Going into its first weekend, estimates had Last Rites pegged for a $40+ million domestic opening and $80 million globally. It had become commonplace for horror movies to do better than expected this year, but Last Rites blew all of the estimates out of the water, raising questions of how the tracking was so off.
Since its debut in 2013, The Conjuring Universe franchise has been one of the biggest names in horror. Prior to the release of Last Rites, the three mainline Conjuring installments and a handful of spinoffs combined to collectively gross $2.2 billion at the box office. Even though The Conjuring Universe has a mixed track record in terms of critical reception, the series has always been a proven box office draw. There is an audience for this franchise, and the fact that Last Rites was marketed as a finale (this is apparently the last time Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga will play Ed and Lorraine Warren) made it feel like more of an event. Die-hard fans didn’t want to miss out on seeing the paranormal investigating duo solve their final case.
The Conjuring: Last Rites was also able to take advantage of weak box office competition. Hitting theaters the weekend after Labor Day, there weren’t many other notable titles playing. It’s telling that the weekend before, new arrivals Caught Stealing and The Roses were overshadowed by the 50th anniversary re-release of Jaws. Critically acclaimed horror film Weapons dominated the box office throughout August and appealed to a similar target audience, but by the time Last Rites arrived in theaters, Weapons had already done a majority of its damage and audiences were ready for another horror movie.
The combination of enduring franchise popularity and a slow marketplace made it easy for The Conjuring: Last Rites to crush the box office. It will be interesting to see how Last Rites fares from here on out. Franchise sequels tend to be front-loaded and can suffer massive second weekend drops after the hype dies down (especially ones that shatter records). There are some high-profile releases still to come in September (including The Long Walk), but Last Rites should remain a healthy draw throughout the month. Even more fascinating will be if Warner Bros. tries to find a way to keep The Conjuring Universe alive on the big screen. There’s obviously still a lot of interest in this series.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm
