The Conjuring: Last Rites had a massive opening weekend. The ninth film in the Conjuring franchise and fourth entry in the main series racked up over $190 million globally and set a new record for horror films. And it continues Warner Bros’ incredible and historic hot streak.
Arriving in theaters on September 5, The Conjuring: Last Rites brought in $84 million domestically alone, making it the largest domestic opening in the franchise’s history. The horror flick, which stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, collected $110 million internationally, as reported by Variety. Combined, the film brought in $194 million total.
That bonkers total, which far exceeds WB’s expectations, is not only the biggest opening in the franchise’s history, but it also beat out 2017’s It, which earned $190 million during its opening weekend, and is now the largest debut for a horror flick ever. The entire Conjuring universe, which started in 2013, now sits at $2.3 billion in earnings, making it the highest-grossing horror franchise of all time.
And despite lukewarm critical reviews, Last Rites continues WB’s impressive and historic box office hot streak. The Conjuring: Last Rites is now the seventh film in a row from WB to make $40 million or more during its opening weekend. It started with Minecraft in April and has continued with each WB movie released since then. This kind of hot streak has never happened before. Will it continue? WB’s next movie, One Battle After Another, might not be able to keep the streak going, but we’ll find out when it arrives in theaters later this month.
One final fact: The top three horror film openings in the United States are now The Conjuring: Last Rites, It, and It: Chapter Two. And guess which studio produced and distributed all of those films? Warner Bros.
