UPDATE: Looks like we might be looking at a $27M Friday, not counting previews, for “The Conjuring: The Last Rites.” The opening weekend is now aiming for the $80M mark. Unbelievable. Beyond expectations.
EARLIER: Another win for Warner Bros.
“The Conjuring Last Rites” earned $7M in Thursday previews. WB is out here having their seventh $50M+ opener in a row, and it’s from quite possibly their most profitable franchise yet.
Warner Bros. can’t stop winning at the box office. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” earned an impressive $7M from Thursday previews, a potential $50M+ opening, setting the stage for what looks like the studio’s seventh straight $40M+ opening weekend in a row.
If that holds, WB is about to extend one of the most remarkable hot streaks in recent box office memory. The studio, which started off the year with “‘Mickey 17” and “Alto Knight,” has since been consistently delivering openings north of $50M all year — and now they’ve done it with their most quietly lucrative franchise. This in essence has saved Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy’s jobs.
Since James Wan’s 2013 original, “The Conjuring” universe has become one of the most profitable horror brands ever, grossing over $2.1 billion worldwide on modest budgets. Spin-offs like “Annabelle” and “The Nun” have routinely turned into cash cows, and now ‘Last Rites’ is positioned to become yet another win for WB’s horror franchise.
It’s not like reviews have been good for ‘Last Rites,’ which doesn’t seem to matter much to this franchise’s devotees. To get a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, in this day and age of studio shilling, is quite something. Yet, horror is horror these days, a profitable genre that for many demands the theatrical experience.
Still, that $7M preview haul puts it well ahead of “The Conjuring 2“($3.4M) and franchise best “The Nun” ($5.4M). If the momentum holds, WB’s streak of $50M+ openers lives on — at least for now.
Because next on their slate is Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which is currently tracking in the $22–24M range against a budget north of $150M. Unless word-of-mouth sparks an unlikely breakout, that film will never flirt with profitability. Regardless, even then, Warners can afford to chalk it up as an outlier in a year where they’ve otherwise owned the box office conversation.
Duffield's "Whalefall," the survival thriller about a diver swallowed by a sperm whale, is heading toward a roughly $7M-ish opening weekend, according to the most recent Saturday update.