Horror at the Box Office: ‘Conjuring: Last Rites’ Scares Up Massive Opening Weekend
Audiences are ready to kick off the spooky season! The Conjuring Last Rites box office skyrocketed past expectations, delivering the largest opening weekend in the history of the franchise.
Last Rites earned an estimated $83 million, as Warner Bros notched yet another 2025 horror hit. This is the fourth time in the last five weekends that a horror film has topped the box office.
The Conjuring: Last Rites totally dominated the weekend, grossing several times more than any other film. It also spooked the international box office for $104 million, giving it a staggering $187 million worldwide. The film cost $55 million to produce. That doesn’t include advertising costs, but this movie is going to extremely profitable.
Last week’s champion, Weapons, landed in third place with $5.3 million, a respectable 49% decline from the previous weekend. That ran its domestic total to $143 million and past $250 million worldwide. Weapons has had a great run and it’s not ready to fizzle out quite yet.
Up Next
The Long Walk, an adaptation of the dystopian Stephen King novel, premieres on September 12th. Lionsgate has clearly spent lots of money on marketing. I’ve lost count of how many television ads I’ve seen for this movie. Reviews have been great (95% on Rotten Tomatoes).
The Long Walk‘s performance will partially depend on how well Last Rites holds up in its second weekend. The latest Conjuring installment has received mediocre reviews, so it may not have the staying power of movies like Sinners and Weapons. If The Conjuring can pull off a decent second weekend, it could end up as the highest grossing movie of the series.
This was supposed to be the conclusion of the franchise, but it’s difficult to believe Warner Bros. would shut down its cash cow. Like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream, The Conjuring‘s “last” installment will probably turn out to be anything but final.
Credit to Box Office Mojo for the figures cited.
