September won’t have a massive tentpole ala last year’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which opened to $111M last year, but we’ll have at least something in New Line’s finale The Conjuring: Last Rites which hit three-week tracking this AM to $35M-$40M.
Warners has largely owned the post Labor Day box office frame with a big scary movie since debuting It: Chapter One to the world with $123.4M back in 2017, still September’s biggest opening ever. The following year, same exact same frame, they debuted The Nun which still owns the biggest opening in The Conjuring franchise with $53.8M.
Michael Chaves, who previously helmed The Nun II, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Curse of La Llorona, takes over the reigns here on Last Rites which follows paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) who take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront.
While The Nun II in the face of headwinds from the 2023 actors and writers strikes (which prevented talent from publicizing the movie) opened to $32.6M and ended its domestic run at $83.2M, Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It saw its gross potential hampered by Warner Bros’ theatrical day-and-date pandemic HBO Max experiment, that pic bowing to $24.1M and finaling in U.S./Canada at $65.6M. With Last Rites being a full-bodied theatrical release, it’s a moment for a The Conjuring sequel to up its grosses back to their full potential sans Covid and strikes.
First Choice for Last Rites is solid among women under 25, and women over 25 as well as men under 25. At this point in time those figures are way higher than where Alien Romulus ($42M) and Insidious: Red Door ($33M opening) stood on their first day of tracking.
