“Conjuring: The Last Rites” should bring the box office back to life.
The latest entry in Warner Bros. and New Line’s supernatural horror franchise is aiming for $50 million or more in its opening weekend. The studio is cautiously predicting a $35 million start while independent tracking services believe the final number could be above $55 million.
Internationally, “Conjuring: The Last Rites” is aiming for another $50 million from 66 territories for a global launch that could be above the $100 million mark.
Those ticket sales would be a huge boon to movie theater owners after the all-important summer stretch ended on a downtrodden note. Popcorn season officially ended with domestic revenues at $3.67 billion, down 0.2% from 2024 and 10.2% from 2023, according to Comscore. Although the lineup looked strong on paper, the crop of comic book adventures and action sequels wasn’t enough to push ticket sales to $4 billion as expected.
“The Last Rites,” which cost $55 million, could cement a new opening weekend record for the “Conjuring” universe. Currently the largest launch in the franchise belongs to the original 2013 thrill ride, “The Conjuring,” with $41 million. Meanwhile the sequels, 2016’s “The Conjuring 2” and 2021’s “Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” respectively debuted to $40 million and $24 million while appearing simultaneously on HBO Max. Across eight films (spinoffs include “Annabelle” and “The Nun”), the “Conjuring” universe has quietly risen to become the highest-grossing horror franchise in history with a combined $2.3 billion. And production budgets are usually modest, making for some scary-good profit margins.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are returning as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who are trying to vanquish a demon from a family’s home. Michael Chaves, who directed the prior film in the series, returned behind the camera while James Wan, who created the occult-tilted property, and Peter Safran are back as producers.
“Conjuring: The Last Rites” could extend a remarkable winning streak for Warner Bros. following the theatrical successes of “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “F1: The Movie” (which the studio distributed for Apple), “Superman” and “Weapons.” It’s a notable comeback for Warner Bros. chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy given that not too long ago “Mickey 17,” Robert de Niro’s “The Alto Knights” and “Joker: Folie à Deux” majorly misfired at the box office.
Also this weekend, Disney is bringing “Hamilton,” a taping of the Broadway smash that’s been available to watch on Disney+ since 2020, to the big screen. Because of the pandemic, the studio released the filmed version of the hit musical directly onto its streaming service instead of a planned theatrical run in 2021. “Hamilton” is tracking for $6 million to $7 million from 1,800 theaters. That looks to represent a decent amount of people who still want to be in the room where it happens.
Source link
