As expected, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It won the weekend at the box office, and while the estimated $24 million is slightly lower than the $25 million being predicted, it’s another big win for the theatrical industry in general, whichever way you want to look at it.
The third installment in the series, and eighth entry overall in The Conjuring Universe, scored the third-biggest debut of the pandemic era behind A Quiet Place Part II and Godzilla vs. Kong, and the fifth number one movie for studio Warner Bros. this year, despite all of them getting simultaneous HBO Max releases.
Last week’s record-breaking champion took a sizeable hit after dropping almost 60% in its second frame to $19.5 million, which also deprived us of being able to say for the first time in close to a year and a half that two titles earned at least $20 million apiece in consecutive weekends, after John Krasinski’s horror sequel and Disney’s Cruella both managed the feat during the last three-day weekend. So close, cinemas, so close.
However, in more good news, should A Quiet Place Part II earn another $12 million throughout the rest of its run, then it’ll become the first film since Sonic the Hedgehog arrived in February 2020 to bring in over $100 million from domestic screens, with the video game adaptation the one and only effort released last year to hit that milestone. That being said, Godzilla vs. Kong is $881,332 away from the milestone, so it remains to be seen which blockbuster reaches it first.
Speaking of the Mouse House’s origin story, Cruella took third with just over $11.2 million as sequel talks continue behind the scenes, the animated Spirit Untamed opened in fourth with an underwhelming $6.2 million, with the rest of the Top 10 filled out by longtime holdovers Wrath of Man, Raya and the Last Dragon, Spiral, Godzilla vs. Kong and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, with drama Dream Horse bringing up the rear in its third weekend. It’s been another win for the horror genre, but blockbuster season is almost upon us, so hopefully the box office will continue to rebound.