Topline

Horror movie “The Conjuring: Last Rites” dominated the box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $83 million according to early estimates published by Hollywood trade publications, easily outpacing projections to become the biggest opening for a fright film in 2025 and the seventh consecutive hit for Warner Bros.

Vera Farmiga, one of the stars of “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” attends the Emmy Awards in 2019.

FilmMagicKey Facts

Although Warner Bros. began the year with a series of flops, including “Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights,” the new “Conjuring” film became its latest release to gross more than $40 million at the box office on their opening weekends: following “A Minecraft Movie,” “The Accountant 2,” “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” “F1,” “Superman,” and “Weapons.”

The most recent installment of the “Conjuring” franchise, which began with “The Conjuring” in 2013, now has the most successful opening weekend of any film in the franchise—beating out “The Nun,” the 2018 spinoff that grossed $53.8 million its opening weekend.

“The Conjuring: Last Rites” also became the third-biggest horror opening in domestic box office history—falling short of only “It” in 2017 (which grossed $123 million) and “It: Chapter 2” in 2019 ($91 million).

How Does “the Conjuring: Last Rites” Compare To This Year’s Other Horror Hits?

Despite a less-than-stellar year for box office sales, “The Conjuring: Last Rites” joins one of several horror films making headlines for unexpected success. In April, “Sinners,” the new original film from “Black Panther” and “Creed” director Ryan Coogler, opened with $48 million after receiving high praise from audiences and critics. “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the sixth installment in its own long-running series, opened with $51.6 million in May. Finally, in August, Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” grossed $43.5 million during its opening weekend. With an $83 million opening weekend, “The Conjuring: Last Rites” clearly outperformed the other major horror hits for initial ticket sales. It remains to be seen if it can keep up this demand and keep outpacing the other horror hits overall. “Sinners” proved to be a major hit in the U.S., grossing a total of $278.5 million at the domestic box office before leaving theaters, but was less of a hit internationally, grossing just over $88 million internationally for a combined $366.6 million. “Final Destination: Bloodlines” took home $138.1 million at the domestic box office, but grossed more than $307.4 million worldwide. “Weapons,” which is still playing in some theaters, has grossed a total of $139.1 million domestically before factoring in all of this weekend’s sales, according to Box Office Mojo data.

Surprising Fact

The second biggest movie at the box office over the weekend wasn’t a holdover blockbuster or a new release—it was “Hamilton,” the filmed version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster musical originally released for streaming on Disney+ in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The musical was filmed in 2016 and features members of the original Broadway cast. Disney announced that it would bring “Hamilton” to theaters earlier this year for a limited run that would feature a new prologue and interviews with cast members. “Hamilton” grossed an estimated $9.8 million across 1,825 theaters over the weekend, Variety reported. Its unexpected performance follows another limited release—Netflix released “Kpop Demon Hunters,” their wildly successful animated musical released on streaming in June, for a single-weekend run to gross $18 million.