With the success of last month’s “Weapons,” Warner Bros. became the first studio ever to release seven consecutive movies that opened to $40 million or more at the domestic box office. New Line’s “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” the latest installment of James Wan’s hit franchise, could make it eight as it is projected for a $50 million-plus opening.
“Last Rites” is the ninth film in the “Conjuring” universe that first began back in 2013, a franchise that includes three mainline films starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as well as two spinoff series around occult foes from those movies: the “Annabelle” trilogy and two “The Nun” films. Combined, they’ve made nearly $2.4 billion in lifetime global grosses.
Whether “Last Rites” is truly the last “Conjuring” film ever isn’t clear, even if the film is being sold as the final chapter for Farmiga and Wilson’s protagonists Ed and Lorraine Warren. While promoting “The Nun II” in 2023, “Last Rites” director Michael Chaves told SlashFilm that the sequel was being developed at the time as a “finale” for the story that the “Conjuring” series had told up to that point.
But as “Jurassic World Rebirth” demonstrated, studios can pivot franchises towards soft reboots with new heroes and villains in the same timeline, and that’s something that New Line and “Conjuring” creator/producer James Wan could do if “Last Rites” turns out to be a hit.
So will it pass that $40 million mark? If it does, “Last Rites” would be the first film in the “Conjuring” series to do so since the pandemic. The last movie to open above $40 million was “The Nun” with a franchise record $53.8 million in 2018.
But since the pandemic, the highest opening for the franchise has been the $32.6 million opening of “The Nun II” in this same early September opening weekend slot in 2023. Based off of that opening, Warner Bros. is keeping its projections conservative at $35 million-plus.
Reviews could also weigh down “Last Rites,” as critics are at best describing the film as a serviceable horror flick with early Rotten Tomatoes scores at 63%. But even the positive reviews admit that the film shows signs that the “Conjuring” series doesn’t pack the punch it once did, and if fans agree, this could be a frontloaded title.
Still, with a reported budget of around $55 million — consistent with New Line’s recent spending on franchise horror — this should be another success as Warner Bros. is set to finish its 2025 slate this month.
With New Line’s “Mortal Kombat II” moving from October to May 2026, the last film on Warner’s 2025 slate is Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film marks the latest roll of the dice on original, mature, auteur-driven filmmaking after the last such title paid off huge with Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” the highest grossing original live-action film of the past 15 years.