The power of Ed and Lorraine Warren compels you — to buy a movie ticket!
The Conjuring: Last Rites scared up a startling $83 million at the domestic box office this weekend, making it the biggest horror premiere of 2025 so far. The year’s other big fright fests still hold on to their own trophies: at four consecutive weeks atop the box office, Zach Cregger’s suburban nightmare Weapons is the year’s longest-running chart topper, and at $278.5 million, Ryan Coogler’s vampire throw-down Sinners boasts the highest domestic gross. But with a domestic premiere figure like that and global figures reaching as high as $187 million, the thrilling conclusion to the sprawling Conjuring universe may be coming for those crowns, too.
The franchise, which kicked off with James Wan’s 2013 haunted-house horror The Conjuring, has spawned enduring heroes in Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play the real-life ghost-hunting couple) and iconic antagonists in cursed doll Annabelle and demon nun Valak. It has also long enjoyed the title of highest-grossing franchise in horror history, and digging into those numbers makes Last Rites‘ debut even more impressive.
Julia Garner in ‘Weapons’ and Lin-Manuel Miranda in ‘Hamilton’.
Warner Bros;Dinsey Plus
The Conjuring: Last Rites ends the franchise on a high note with a series-best opening figure. The Nun was previously the franchise’s top grosser, taking in $53.8 million during its opening weekend in 2018. That makes Last Rites‘ $83 million haul a 54 percent improvement. And it’s miles ahead of the last four films in the franchise — The Nun II, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Annabelle Comes Home, and The Curse of La Llorona — not one of which grossed over $35 million in its premiere.
In fact, Last Rites‘ premiere figure alone represents a higher take than the lifetime grosses of the last three films mentioned above. In addition to possibly overtaking Sinners, Weapons, and even Final Destination Bloodlines in terms of lifetime gross at the 2025 box office, Last Rites has a decent shot of clearing each of the other films in the Conjuring universe by the time its theatrical run is through.
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Another notable consequence of its win this week is the defeat of Weapons, which dominated the domestic box office for the past four weeks. Starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, and Alden Ehrenreich, the mystery actually fell two spots this weekend, with the $10 million take from a filmed version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stage sensation of Hamilton earning it the No. 2 spot, leaving Weapons‘ $5.3 million week-5 haul to take home No. 3.
Elsewhere on the domestic and global charts, Japan’s grim animated fantasy Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle continues to dominate globally with a $12.3 million take after seven weeks in the box office. But the latest chapter in the Demon Slayer saga has so far only played in 11 territories confined to East and Southeast Asia; next week, the film debuts across the world, opening up dozens of new revenue streams.
Domestically, Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing and Jay Roach’s The Roses held strong in the domestic top 10 in their second week of release. The former, a rock-driven gutter-punk throwback starring Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz scored $3.2 million, earning it the fifth spot on the domestic charts, while the latter, a star-studded black comedy led by Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, earned No. 6 with $2.8 million.
None of the new releases on next week’s slate poses enough of a singular threat to knock Last Rites off the top. But the sheer diversity of offerings may draw significant numbers away from what should be a strong second week for the final Conjuring film.
If any one film has what it takes, it’s The Long Walk, an adaptation of a chilling Stephen King tale starring Mark Hamill and Cooper Hoffman. But there’s also Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, an equally cinematic sunset for a beloved property as Last Rites is for The Conjuring. Two of the moments it-est It Boys, Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, team up for the Cannes-premiering queer romance The History of Sound, and not to be counted out, Rob Reiner’s legacy sequel, Spinal Tap: The End Continues, which features appearances from the likes of Elton John, Questlove, and Paul McCartney, debuts.
