The Conjuring: Last Rites has been advertised as being the last film to feature Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren. The legendary married paranormal investigators were introduced in 2013 in The Conjuring, the first entry in The Conjuring universe franchise, which has since become the highest-grossing horror franchise in history, with a current worldwide gross of over $2.5 billion, despite generally mixed reviews throughout its existence.
Indeed, the reviews for The Conjuring: Last Rites, which presently holds a 57% Rotten Tomatoes rating, have been decidedly uninspiring, with the general critical consensus being that Last Rites represents a boring and unsatisfying conclusion to a previously declining series. Given the tepid critical reaction, the recent announcement that the franchise would be moving to television seemed to be perfectly timed to coincide with a seemingly necessary end for the film series.
However, audiences have declared reports of the imminent demise of the Conjuring film series to be premature. Their vibrant support of The Conjuring: Last Rites, which had the biggest worldwide box-office opening of any horror film in history, while receiving a relatively modest B CinemaScore audience rating, demonstrates continued enthusiasm for the franchise. Despite the wide disparity between its commercial and critical performance, the unprecedented box-office success of The Conjuring: Last Rites has generated great skepticism about whether the film can be the last big-screen entry for a series that remains so lucrative.
‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Had a Blessed Box-Office Opening
The Conjuring: Last Rites was initially projected to gross $50 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend of theatrical release. This performance would have ranked as the second-best domestic opening in the franchise, behind the $53.8 million for The Nun in 2018. However, the film easily surpassed this projection with a whopping domestic opening of $84 million, the third-highest domestic opening for any horror film in history, behind the $123.4 million opening of It in 2017 and the $91 million opening of It: Chapter Two in 2019.
The news was even better at the overseas box office, where The Conjuring: Last Rites grossed $110 million in its opening weekend of international release, for a record-breaking worldwide box office opening of $194 million, surpassing the $179 million worldwide opening for It. The previous entry in the series, the 2021 installment The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, had a pandemic-affected domestic opening of $24.1 million, on its way to a total worldwide gross of $206.4 million, the lowest worldwide total in the franchise, followed by the $231.2 million total for Annabelle Comes Home in 2019.
The highest-grossing entry in The Conjuring universe franchise is presently The Nun, which concluded its theatrical run with a total worldwide gross of just over $366 million. This was despite receiving a dismal CinemaScore audience rating of C and a 24% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Whether The Conjuring: Last Rites, which has a current worldwide gross of $243.6 million, can surpass The Nun will obviously depend on whether it can defy its muted word-of-mouth support and avoid a precipitous box-office drop that reaches epic proportions throughout the rest of its theatrical run.
Audiences Have Bonded With Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s Ed and Lorraine Warren
Regardless of how skeptical audiences are that The Conjuring: Last Rites will be the last big-screen entry in the franchise, the film’s oversized box-office performance is clearly attributable to the alluring prospect of seeing beloved franchise stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as franchise protagonists Ed and Lorraine Warren for potentially the last time. While The Conjuring: Last Rites has divided audiences and critics, the film’s box-office success, along with that of the entire series, is a testament to the degree to which audiences have formed a strong emotional bond with Farmiga and Wilson. Their palpable chemistry and empathy have transformed their demon-hunting characters into surrogate family members for audiences.
However, just as the implied finality of the film’s title inspired franchise followers to see The Conjuring: Last Rites in greater numbers than ever before, the film’s box-office success is also attributable to how the movie represents the kind of unadulterated horror film viewing experience that can only be fully appreciated in a theater. Given the uncertainty over the franchise’s future, especially with the announcement of the upcoming The Conjuring television series on HBO Max, many viewers doubtlessly saw The Conjuring: Last Rites as a last chance to indulge in a soon-to-be bygone era.
Horror Has Dominated the Box Office in 2025
The Conjuring: Last Rites has ridden the crest of the horror boom that has gripped the box office in 2025. Horror films have generated more than $1 billion at the domestic box office, led by the $278.5 million domestic gross of Sinners, followed by the $138.1 million domestic gross of Final Destination: Bloodlines, and the current $143.9 million domestic gross of Weapons.
The Conjuring: Last Rites, which crossed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office in its sixth day of release, has no chance of surpassing the domestic box-office performance of Sinners. However, its current $243.6 million worldwide gross puts it well within striking range of the $307.4 million worldwide total for Final Destination: Bloodlines, and the $366.7 million worldwide total for Sinners, to become the worldwide highest-grossing horror film of 2025. The Conjuring: Last Rites is in theaters now.
The Conjuring: Last Rites
2
/5
- Release Date
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September 5, 2025
- Runtime
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135 Minutes
- Director
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Michael Chaves
- Writers
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David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Ian B. Goldberg, Richard Naing, Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, James Wan
- Producers
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Peter Safran, James Wan
