Weekend Box Office: The Conjuring: Last Rites has a franchise-best opening
What a weekend for the Conjuring franchise. Despite everyone saying this was going to be the last installment of the flagship series, Warner Bros. might want to reconsider, as the movie set a franchise-best record (by about $30 million) with a jaw-dropping $83 million opening. To put this into context, even the most optimistic box office forecasters thought the movie would make $50 million (we guessed $40 million), especially after the last film, The Devil Made Me Do It, opened to just $24 million. Of course, that film opened at the height of the pandemic and debuted day-and-date on HBO Max. Still, $83 million is a dazzling number and another huge win for Warner Bros., following Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, and Weapons. Clearly, horror has been very good to them. They also dominated the same weekend last year with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
The weekend’s runner-up was also unexpected: the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton earned $10 million, a huge number for a production that’s already streaming on Disney Plus. Weapons also continued its successful run, adding another $5.3 million to its $143 million domestic total.
Freakier Friday managed to hold on to fourth place, bringing in $3.8 million for an $87 million total. It will likely finish shy of the $100 million mark. Sadly, Darren Aronofsky’s excellent Caught Stealing dropped a steep 59% this weekend for a $3.2 million finish, bringing its domestic total to $14 million. It will take a miracle for this one to hit $20 million.
Still, it fared better than The Roses, which only made $2.8 million for a $12.28 million total. I imagine this experiment with opening big movies on Labor Day weekend will be a one-off, as neither film found much of an audience. Meanwhile, Fantastic Four: First Steps is hanging in there with $2.7 million for a $270 million domestic total. The Bad Guys 2 has also been consistent in its weekly grosses, earning $2.4 million for a $77 million total. The faith-based animated film Light of the World came out of nowhere to make $2.4 million in ninth place, although its $1,157 per-screen average suggests only devout Christians are checking it out. Finally, James Gunn’s Superman rounded out the top 10 with another $1 million, bringing its domestic total to $353 million.
The Conjuring likely won’t have any trouble holding on to the top spot next weekend, with the two big openers being the Stephen King adaptation of The Long Walk (which we liked) and the latest Downton Abbey film, which should play well with franchise fans. Still, it seems like nothing until possibly the Jordan Peele–produced Him has a real chance of dethroning it.
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