The Conjuring franchise has been a huge success for Warner Bros. and New Line (which is why there's been so many movies and spin-offs), and the latest (supposedly final) film in the main series, The Conjuring: Last Rites, looks set to become the biggest hit so far.
The supernatural horror yarn was met with mixed-negative reviews from critics (it's currently sitting at 55% on Rotten Tomatoes), but that hasn't stopped fright fans from showing up to theaters in droves.
Last Rites opened on Friday with $34.6M (including previews) to give it the fourth-biggest opening day of all time for a horror movie domestically. An estimated $53.8 million weekend will make it the third-highest grossing horror movie in history after 2017’s It ($123 million) and 2019’s It: Chapter Two ($91 million).
Internationally, Last Rites earned $104 million for an incredible global launch of $187 million.
Before it was decided to focus on the Smurl case for this final film, some pretty out-there ideas were tossed around.
"Even as we were developing it, we were throwing a bunch of ideas out: 'How shamelessly big can we make it?' 'How epic can we make it?' 'Is this the culmination of all the demons coming to face them?" said director Michael Chaves in a recent interview.
The filmmaker revealed that the team briefly entertained the idea of "about a dozen Doctor Strange portals opening to reveal every Conjuring entity assembled together for an endgame of sorts."
"I felt strongly that the biggest, most emotional story we could tell was the most personal story."
"The beating heart of this franchise is Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson playing Ed and Lorraine," added James Wan. "The family dynamic, the faith the characters have, and the faith that they have in each other are really the things that drive this particular franchise. I do think that's what people love about it. At least for me and Peter Safran, it's really about finding a way to tell the stories of these characters and to wrap them up in a way that feels respectful to where we started with them."
The official synopsis reads:
"The Conjuring: Last Rites delivers another thrilling chapter of the iconic Conjuring cinematic universe, based on real events. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reunite for one last case as renowned, real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in a powerful and spine-chilling addition to the global box office-breaking franchise. Farmiga and Wilson star alongside Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy, who portray Ed and Lorraine’s daughter Judy Warren and her boyfriend, Tony Spera, as well as Steve Coulter returning as Father Gordon, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon, John Brotherton and Shannon Kook."