In an early scene from Michael Chaves' The Conjuring: Last Rites, Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, are featured in a classroom giving one of their demonology lectures, but when we see their audience for the first time, only a few seats in the hall are filled. Presented as a contrast to the first film in the horror series, it's meant to inform movie-goers that the protagonists are reaching the end of their careers... but it's notably not a reflection of reality. The Warrens may be done fighting evil, but box office numbers suggest that they are are just as popular as ever.
The Conjuring: Last Rites has been marketed as the end of the Conjuring Universe, and it is positioned as the opener for Halloween Season 2025 – and it seems those two special qualifiers have turned it into an instant box office juggernaut. The movie majorly overperformed compared to expectations, and it has broken records along the way. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. The Conjuring: Last Rites* | $83,000,000 | $83,000,000 | N/A | 3,802 |
2. Hamilton* | $10,000,000 | $10,000,000 | N/A | 1,825 |
3. Weapons | $5,370,000 | $143,045,000 | 1 | 3,284 |
4. Freakier Friday | $3,800,000 | $87,813,679 | 4 | 3,125 |
5. Caught Stealing | $3,200,000 | $14,901,000 | 3 | 3,578 |
6. The Roses | $2,800,000 | $12,284,311 | 5 | 2,700 |
7. The Fantastic Four: First Steps | $2,750,000 | $270,131,321 | 6 | 2,385 |
8. The Bad Guys 2 | $2,450,000 | $77,710,000 | 7 | 2,602 |
9. Light Of The World* | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | N/A | 2,075 |
10. Superman | $1,000,000 | $353,302,000 | 8 | 1,187 |
The Conjuring: Last Rites Smashes Franchise Records With The 13th Biggest Domestic Debut Of 2025
The Conjuring Universe has been one of the most popular franchises of the last dozen years. Not counting Michael Chaves' The Curse Of La Llorona in the canon (which even the director doesn't do), all eight previous features in the continuity have made over $200 million worldwide at the box office. The love for these movies is very real – which shouldn't make the outrageous success of The Conjuring: Last Rites all that surprising, but it still is.
In mid-August, Deadline reported that the Conjuring finale was looking at an opening weekend in the range of $35-40 million... and now that the film is here, it turns out that they were way, way off. According to The Numbers, the new horror movie made $83 million over the last three days, which is by far the biggest debut for a film in the franchise. The previous record for the series specifically was James Wan's The Conjuring in 2013, which made $41.9 million when it arrived, and the old record for the full canon was Corin Hardy's The Nun, which began its theatrical run making $53.8 million.
The Conjuring: Last Rites didn't earn the greatest buzz in the franchise so far (I personally gave it three-and-a-half stars in my CinemaBlend review), but audiences evidently didn't really care much about the word of mouth and just wanted to see it for themselves. It's not totally clear what the driving force behind the huge box office numbers was – be it the start of Halloween season, the movie being a finale, general fandom, or simple starvation for a big movie after a slow August – but the success is massive no matter what the reason.
It's not even just that The Conjuring: Last Rites did well domestically, as the ticket sales abroad are outstanding as well. While $83 million is a lot for the film to make in three days from just the United States and Canada, it made even more collectively from foreign markets – specifically $104 million. I probably don't need to say this, but making $187 million in a single weekend worldwide is extremely good for a movie of this size (per Variety, it was made with a $55 million budget, which I should note is the most money spent on one of these productions).
As far as franchise rankings go, The Conjuring: Last Rites remains in the basement in terms of worldwide earnings, but that is going to change extremely quickly. The film only needs to make about $20 million more to surpass the full big screen earnings of Michael Chaves' The Devil Made Me Do It from 2021 (which it may end up doing before its second weekend), and how it will climb after that will be something to watch. It will be exciting to see if it can surpass the $366.1 million made by The Nun in 2018.
Will the release schedule allow it? That's a fair question, especially with a significant number of genre titles set to be released in the weeks leading up to Halloween, including a brutal new Stephen King movie set to arrive next week.
From Stage To Streaming To The Big Screen, Hamilton Can Still Draw A Crowd
It seems that no matter where Lin Manuel Miranda's Hamilton is playing, people are interested in checking it out. Obviously it started with the Broadway musical becoming a pop culture phenomenon, not only selling out just about every show but winning 11 Tony Awards (including Best Musical) after being nominated for a record 16 categories. Five years after its stage premiere, a recording was cut together and was made available for Disney+ subscribers, and it was a massive hit for the streaming service.
Now, in celebration of Hamilton's 10 year anniversary, the award-winning, record-breaking hit has made its way to theaters, and the box office results are yet another feather in its cap.
Hamilton – in both standard and sing-a-long forms – is still available to watch at home with a Disney+ account, but that didn't stop a whole lot of people from going for the more immersive experience of seeing it in theaters this weekend. The stage recording didn't get a full wide release, as it played in only 1,825 locations domestically, but it nonetheless did quite well and took second place in the Top 10 with a $10 million box office take.
It's not going to be included on any lists of the biggest performers of 2025 come the end of December, but it's still a great demonstration of enduring popularity. Perhaps it will set the stage for a proper Hamilton film adaptation in 2030?
Looking ahead, this coming Friday will see a very eclectic group of movies premiering in wide release, with titles including Francis Lawrence's The Long Walk, Rob Reiner's Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and Simon Curtis' Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. How will the titles compete with The Conjuring: Last Rites in its second week and fit into the Top 10? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for my full analysis of the results.
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