We're three quarters of the way through 2025 already, and it would be fair to say that this has been, by any metric, a banner year for horror movies
We’re three quarters of the way through 2025 already, and it would be fair to say that this has been, by any metric, a banner year for horror movies. From the critical and commercial success of Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, to the triumphant return of the Final Destination franchise with Bloodlines, to this summer’s water cooler dominating Weapons from Zach Cregger and Bring Her Back from the Philippous, the genre has been on a scarily good run. And that run continues with Michael Chaves’ The Conjuring: Last Rites, which scored a franchise-best $187 million opening at the box office this weekend.
Taking $83 million on home turf and a meaty $104 million internationally, the fourth — and, supposedly, final — mainline entry in The Conjuring franchise comfortably outpaced previous Conjuringverse series best The Nun‘s opening back in 2018, proving once again that Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s Ed and Lorraine Warren are what really keeps us coming back for more, not the demonic presences and cursed dolls. In fact, not only does Chaves’ film sit atop the horror franchise’s nine-movie tower when it comes to its box office debut (no mean feat on a $55 million budget), but it also has actually dethroned Warner Bros.’ own IT: Chapter Two as the biggest launch for a horror movie outside of the US — something that will no doubt come into consideration when James Wan and Peter Safran come to deciding just how stiff the word ‘final’ is for a genre juggernaut such as The Conjuring.
With The Conjuring: Last Rites rounding out an unprecedented seven-movie run of $40 million-plus opening weekends for Warner Bros. that started with A Minecraft Movie back in April, the studio has given itself a little breathing space ahead of the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Budgeted at $130 million, the near-three-hour-long Leonardo DiCaprio starring epic was always unlikely to do Last Rites level numbers when it hits cinemas on 26 September, and now, all things considered, it looks like it won’t really have to. Still, if PTA wants to get back in the editing booth and slide in a couple extra scenes with Ed and Lorraine Warren just to be on the unthreatening side, we’re all for it. One Battle (With The Forces Of Evil) After Another, anyone? Anyone? Fine…
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