{"id":119688,"date":"2025-09-07T00:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T00:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/119688\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T00:14:08","slug":"last-rites-casts-franchise-best-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/119688\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Rites’ Casts Franchise-Best Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe power of Christ still compels moviegoers. \u201cThe Conjuring<\/a>: Last Rites\u201d exorcised an impressive $34.5 million across Friday and preview screenings in 3,802 locations. That\u2019s well ahead of the figure earned by the horror series\u2019 2018 spinoff \u201cThe Nun\u201d ($22 million), giving \u201cLast Rites\u201d the biggest opening day gross in franchise history.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt puts the New Line feature on track to surge far above its pre-weekend industry projections for a $50 million debut, beating \u201cThe Nun\u201d ($53 million) for the series\u2019 biggest opening weekend ever. Not only will it be the biggest domestic bow for a horror movie in 2025, but the R-rated \u201cLast Rites\u201d could even rank as the seventh-biggest opening weekend of the year, with a chance at edging out \u201cThunderbolts*\u201d ($74 million) depending on its play through Saturday. The film also gets a revenue boost from playing Imax and premium large-format auditoriums.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven at its fourth mainline entry (and ninth including spin-offs), \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d franchise has endured as a moviegoing draw. Stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again return as the real-life, self-professed occult investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Director Michael Chaves is also back to helm this entry, after previously handling the last mainline installment \u201cThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It\u201d in 2021, plus the 2023 spinoff \u201cThe Nun II.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe weekend also marks another hit for Warner Bros., which has now strung together a whopping seven consecutive openings above $40 million. Reviews have been mediocre for \u201cLast Rites,\u201d and moviegoers are only a little more positive, with survey firm Cinema Score polling a franchise-low \u201cB\u201d grade among early audiences. But none of that is proving much of a hindrance. Against a production budget of $55 million, it\u2019s off to a fantastic start.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Disney has the filmed version of the Broadway musical juggernaut \u201cHamilton<\/a>\u201d in 1,825 theaters, with $3.9 million across Friday and preview screenings. It\u2019s projected to land in second place with a three-day opening of around $9 million. It\u2019s pretty remarkable, considering that \u201cHamilton\u201d has been available to view on Disney+ for nearly a half-decade. The studio acquired rights to the performance recording years ago and had originally set theatrical plans, but released it on the platform during COVID lockdowns. But now \u201cHamilton\u201d is finally in theaters to align with its 10th anniversary; evidently, there\u2019s a desire to see it on the big screen, despite being readily available for home viewing.<\/p>\n

\n\tThird place goes to another Warner Bros. horror title with \u201cWeapons,\u201d earning another $1.5 million on Friday to go down just 47% from its daily total last week. Now in its fifth weekend of release, writer-director Zach Cregger\u2019s R-rated original has earned more than $140 million in North America.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney is currently holding fourth with \u201cFreakier Friday,\u201d which earned another $960,000 on Friday to fall 46% from its daily total last week. In its fifth weekend, the comedy sequel has now hit $85 million domestic and will soon pass \u201cSnow White\u201d ($87 million) to become the 15th-highest-grossing North American release of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tNarrowly slipping behind to fifth, Sony Pictures\u2019 \u201cCaught Stealing\u201d is facing a $3.2 million gross for its second weekend, which would mark a 58% fall from its debut. That\u2019s not the kind of hold that the mid-budget neo noir was depending on after a muted opening. It\u2019s looking to hit just $14.9 million domestic through its second weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso opening wide this weekend, the Salvation Poem Project has the PG-rated Christian tale \u201cLight of the World\u201d in 2,075 locations. Rivals have the hand-drawn 2D animated feature at $700,000 for Friday and previews, with an eighth-place opening in the cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The power of Christ still compels moviegoers. \u201cThe Conjuring: Last Rites\u201d exorcised an impressive $34.5 million across Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,1373,2839,35053,34137,34139,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-119688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-hamilton","tag-movies","tag-new-line-cinema","tag-the-conjuring","tag-the-conjuring-last-rites","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}