It may not be receiving the best reviews, with a score of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing, but the latest outing in The Conjuring franchise has proven that horror is healthier than ever, and we couldn’t be happier about it.
This weekend, The Nun followed up its spectacular opening a few weeks back with more impressive numbers, bringing its global box office haul to an incredible $330 million. Broken down, that’s $109 million on home turf with another $221 million coming in from overseas. And with a budget of only $22 million, you can probably imagine how happy the studio is with this.
But wait, there’s more. At $330 million, The Nun is now the highest grossing film in the franchise. It’s inched past both The Conjuring ($319 million) and its sequel ($320 million), as well as Annabelle ($275 million) and Annabelle: Creation ($306 million). Given how cheap these movies are to make, these are some truly astonishing numbers and prove that despite the mixed reviews for its latest installment, the property is in great health.
At this point, The Nun could end off in the $350 million range, which would tee up Annabelle 3 quite nicely for its release on July 3rd, 2019. Not to mention we’ve also got The Crooked Man coming down the pipeline along with The Conjuring 3. By that point, worries of franchise fatigue could start to set in, but we’ll cross the bridge when we get to it.
For now, let’s just sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that horror as a whole is thriving, with many films in the genre seeing similar success. And with 2019 set to bring with it a ton of huge releases (see: It: Chapter Two, Three From Hell and Pet Sematary), there’s much to look forward to for those who enjoyed the spooks and scares found in The Nun.