The Conjuring: Last Rites Destroys Box Office Records With Monster Debut
The latest entry in the horror franchise didn’t just draw crowds — it bulldozed expectations, proving that this series still has serious power at the box office.
Turns out telling people a franchise is ending still works. Despite mixed-to-negative reviews, The Conjuring: Last Rites is crushing expectations and delivering the series its biggest opening ever. And honestly, the box office needed this jolt after a sleepy Labor Day weekend.
The opening: big, fast, and ahead of the forecasts
The early story goes like this: a huge $34.6 million Friday put Last Rites on pace for roughly $75 million for the weekend, well above the $50 million estimates studios were floating a few days ago. Some internal chatter even has it pushing as high as $80 million depending on how Saturday and Sunday behave.
That means it will easily leapfrog the franchise’s previous best opening, which belonged to 2018’s The Nun at $55 million. The catch? The audience grade is a B from CinemaScore, which is the softest mark for the mainline Conjuring films. For context: The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 both scored A-, and The Devil Made Me Do It landed a B+. Not a disaster, but it could matter for the legs.
What seems to be powering this surge is the promise that this is the final chapter. Finales often get a send-off bump (on a smaller scale here, obviously), the same way the last laps for Avengers: Endgame, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 did.
The September showdown: can it edge past Shang-Chi?
There’s a fun line in the sand: if Last Rites clears Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ $75.3 million debut from 2021 (a big pandemic-era win at the time), it grabs the No. 4 September opening of all time. If it gets there, it trails only these heavy hitters: It: Chapter Two at $91 million, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at $111 million, and the September king, It, with $123 million. It could be a photo finish.
Inside baseball: a timely win for Warner Bros.
For Warner Bros. bosses Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, this is more than a nice weekend. At the end of March, industry chatter had them on the ropes after a rough stretch that included Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Joker: Folie a Deux, Mickey 17, and Alto Knights underperforming (that last title was reportedly a David Zaslav passion greenlight). Then April hit, a Minecraft movie kicked off a hot streak, and the studio’s been rolling with Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, F1, Superman, and Weapons. They already had six straight No. 1 openings above $40 million; Last Rites should make it seven.
What this means for the franchise
The math is simple: with a $55 million production budget, Last Rites likely earns back its costs by the end of opening weekend alone. The Conjuring Universe has quietly been one of Warner Bros.’ most reliable moneymakers because the budgets stay lean and the returns are consistent. Marketing this as the last hurrah helped goose demand, but with this kind of start, don’t be shocked if 'final' evolves into 'phase two' sooner than later.
Quick stats
- Friday haul: $34.6 million
- Weekend trajectory: about $75 million; some studio chatter says it could crest $80 million depending on the Sat/Sun drop
- Franchise record: beats The Nun’s $55 million opening (2018)
- CinemaScore: B (lowest in the mainline series; The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 got A-, The Devil Made Me Do It got B+)
- Budget: $55 million
- September stakes: needs to top Shang-Chi’s $75.3 million to claim 4th-best September opening; the top three are It ($123M), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($111M), It: Chapter Two ($91M)
- Release date: September 5, 2025
- Runtime: 135 minutes
- Rating: R
- Director: Michael Chaves
- Writers: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Ian B. Goldberg, Richard Naing, Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, James Wan
- Producers: Peter Safran, James Wan
- Cast: Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren; Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren
Bottom line: it is overperforming, the 'final chapter' pitch worked, and now the only weekend drama left is whether it squeaks past Shang-Chi. Either way, the Warrens might not be retiring for long.