The Conjuring: Last Rites is turning out to be the best spook-fest for audiences worldwide as the Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga-starrer crossed $187 million globally within its first weekend of a release. This is the best opening for Warner Bros. and New Line’s Conjuring universe as it earned $83 million in the US, usurping The Nun's record of $53.8 million. Overseas, India alone had contributed over $6.7 million on the first day.
The record has also made The Conjuring: Last Rites grab the coveted title of becoming the biggest opening for a horror movie this year above Final Destination: Bloodlines with $51.6 million. It currently stands third-largest in the horror box office numbers after 2017’s It with $123 million and 2019’s It: Chapter Two with $91 million.
The film is directed by Michael Chavez from a script written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. It is the ninth instalment in The Conjuring universe and is a sequel to The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021).
This has also added on to Warner Bros' advantage and success as it is their seventh consecutive release to open above $40 million. The studio had resurrected itself after Joker: Folie a Deux (2024) and this year's Mickey 17 and The Alto Knights failed to resonate with audiences. Later, A Minecraft Movie earned a massive $162 million in its opening followed by Sinners ($48 million), Final Destination Bloodlines ($51.6 million), Brad Pitt’s F1: The Movie ($57 million), James Gunn's Superman ($125 million) and Zach Cregger’s Weapons ($43.5 million).
The Conjuring: Last Rites had paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren trying to vanquish a demon from a family’s home. It is billed as the final installment in the Conjuring world.
The film opened to mixed reviews from audiences and critics. Our CE review of the film read, "The franchise uses a familiar setting to help the audience settle, only to then focus on the supernatural and the horror, with the tonal shift supplying enough thrills. However, The Conjuring: Last Rites uses the expected to show the expected again."
Apart from Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, the film also stars Ben Hardy, Mia Tomlinson, Tony Spera, Steve Coulter, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon, John Brotherton and Shannon Kook.
Chavez has previously helmed 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and the 2023 Conjuring spinoff The Nun II. The Conjuring: Last Rites. James Wan and Peter Safran, who have produced several previous Conjuring films, have backed The Last Rites.