The Conjuring universe continues to go from strength to strength.
With New Line and Warner’s creepy franchise beginning to take hold, Deadline brings word that its latest instalment, a nerve-shredding prequel by the name of Annabelle: Creation, has now surpassed $300 million at the worldwide box office (off a budget of $15 million, no less).
To be exact, it’s now sitting pretty at $301.5 million, this coming shortly after it became the highest grossing horror film of 2017 – well, until It came along, that is. Not only that, but to put things into perspective, the first movie earned $256.8 million back when it released in 2014 and now, the Conjuring franchise has reached $1.2 billion globally. Not bad, eh?
Directed by David Sandberg of Lights Out fame, Creation launched as a prequel in August and is still playing in select theaters across the States. That means New Line’s spinoff will likely collect a bit more money before its theatrical run comes to an end. Perhaps it’ll topple The LEGO Batman Movie and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (both at $312 million) before those box office numbers are finalized? Time will tell.
Meanwhile, Matt Donato, our resident horror expert, claimed that Annabelle: Creation “carves itself a fun little haunted house to play around in for a quick dose of scares and screams.” In other words, if you haven’t seen it yet, you’re missing out.
Birthed by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes, next up for the fledgling Conjuring universe is the release of The Nun on July 13th, 2018. There’s also a spinoff dedicated to The Crooked Man on the way, before all involved regroup to launch The Conjuring 3. Series stalwarts Patrick Wilson (Aquaman) and Vera Farmiga are said to be courting James Wan back for the horror threequel, but there’s still no update on that front just yet.