Horror movies keep most people awake at night, but since the latest film in The Conjuring Universe just took over the box office, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav is probably sleeping just fine.
‘THE CONJURING: LAST RITES’ actually opened to $194M worldwide.
The biggest global debut for a horror movie in box office history. pic.twitter.com/xA1mMPSjEz
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 8, 2025
With a worldwide weekend total of $194 mil, The Conjuring: Last Rites (which had a reported budget of only $55 mil) has taken the box office crown from 2017’s It (also from Warners New Line) for the best opening weekend ever for a horror movie.
The Conjuring of a Box Office Hit
The Conjuring: Last Rites is the fourth movie in the series that started in 2013, with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, real life demonologists who grew to prominence in the 70s and 80s. Over the course of the couple’s career, they were involved in, among other things, the Amityville Horror and put the Annabelle doll in their occult museum.
This latest film, advertised as the Warrens’ final case, centers around the Smurl family’s haunting by a demon.
A screenshot from the trailer for The Conjuring: Last Rites – YouTube, Warner Bros.
But it’s the tenth film in the larger Conjuring Universe, which includes spin-offs like Annabelle and The Nun, which proves its box office power. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, “In 2013, the very first Conjuring movie opened to $41 million domestically, not adjusted for inflation. No subsequent title in the Conjuring Universe was able to topple that record until The Nun, which debuted to $53.8 million in 2018.”
A screenshot from the trailer for The Conjuring: Last Rites – YouTube, Warner Bros.
The Conjuring: Last Rites shattered franchise records with an $83 million domestic debut, blowing away the box office competition. Accounting for the worldwide take, it also made a profit in its first three days. The Conjuring Universe as a whole has made $2.3 billion, making it the top grossing horror franchise of all time, according to THR, with a new Conjuring Universe movie coming out every one to two years since 2013. There’s little reason to think the pace will slow anytime soon.
The Conjuring Last Rites did Disney’s Snow White (2025) entire global box office run in under 4 days. It also beat Pixar’s Elio (in 2 days), and will almost certainly take down Thunderbolts, Captain Falcon, & perhaps even Fantastic Four.
— Valliant Renegade (@ValliantRenegad) September 8, 2025
The box office success of The Conjuring: Last Rites doesn’t just represent the continuing success of the franchise, but a series of wins of Warner Bros. that’s doubtlessly the envy of the other studios.
Lucky Number Seven
It’s not just The Conjuring Universe that’s breaking records at the box office, as Warner Bros. has also become the first studio with seven consecutive films open over $40 mil in a single year.
With ‘THE CONJURING: LAST RITES,’ Warner Bros. is now the first studio in history to release 7 films debuting with over $40M+ back-to-back at the domestic box office. pic.twitter.com/GKxHomTFhm
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 7, 2025
So in 2025 alone, Warner Bros. has seen success with A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, F1: The Movie, Superman, Weapons, and now The Conjuring: Last Rites. This may signal a major turnaround for the company that’s likely still haunted by last year’s “$9 billion mistake,” when they overvalued their television assets.
But reading last rites over the studio was obviously premature.
The Horror, The Horror
Seeing how The Conjuring films are still a box office draw, and how well horror has done for Warner Bros. this year, with four of their seven hits being from the genre, it’s a safe bet that scary movies are here to stay. Phase two of The Conjuring Universe is already in the works, and if momentum holds, more box office records are in danger.
A screenshot from the trailer for The Conjuring: Last Rites – YouTube, Warner Bros.
The bigger question now is whether rival studios can match Warner Bros.’ momentum—or whether the studio has carved out a lasting advantage with a horror IP it has cultivated for more than a decade.
What do you think? Is WB out of the woods? Do you want more horror movies in this universe? Sound off in the comments!
I thought the excuse in 2025 is that Covid killed people’s desire to watch movies on the silver screen?
Turns out a largely White cast in a non-political movie is popular. So much for DEI.