Last Rites’ jolts box office with third-highest opening for a horror movie

Getting an early jump on the upcoming horror film slate, “The Conjuring: Last Rites” topped the weekend domestic box office while shattering analysts’ expectations with an $83 million haul.

Industry analysts expected the ninth release of “The Conjuring” universe to earn around $50 million. Its bigger-than-expected opening made “Last Rites” the best opening for the franchise, surpassing 2018’s “The Nun” ($53.8 million), and also made it the third-highest opening for a horror movie, behind 2017’s “It” ($123.4 million) and 2019’s “It: Chapter Two” ($91 million).

Both “It” movies and “The Conjuring: Last Rites” were released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of celebrity.land.

“‘The Conjuring’ represents true, pure horror. The true horror movie experience in a movie theater, and that’s why you’re seeing this $83 million debut,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

Horror movies have scored big for Hollywood this year. “The Conjuring: Last Rite” helped lift the horror genre to more than $1 billion at the 2025 domestic box office, according to Comscore data.

Among this year’s high grossers are Warner Bros.’ “Sinners,” which opened in April and has grossed $278.6 million domestically, as well as “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” which grossed $138.1 million. “Weapons,” another Warner Bros. movie, is in theaters for its fifth week and has grossed $143 million.

Horror sequels will remain prominent at theaters this fall. On October 17, Universal Pictures will release “Black Phone 2,” followed by “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” on December 5.

“It’s like the biggest roller coaster in the theme park. It has the longest line because people want to be scared in the communal environment of a movie theater,” Dergarabedian said of horror sequels.

Countering “The Conjuring: Last Rites” this weekend, Disney released the filmed version of the Broadway smash hit “Hamilton,” which finished at No. 2 with $10 million.

“This is another completely unique release,” wrote David A. Gross, who publishes industry newsletter FranchiseRe, adding that earnings for “Hamilton” are “an excellent number” following the musical’s success on streaming platform Disney+ in 2020 and a decade after it debuted on Broadway.

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