One of the things horror films are known for is their plethora of sequels. Sometimes, it feels as if a horror film exists simply in the hope of it being successful enough to spawn its own franchise. M3GAN was barely in theaters before a sequel was announced. Last year, the thirteenth Halloween movie, eleventh Hellraiser, and seventh Predator came out, and now, Scream VI is in theaters. Then there are the franchises like Friday the 13th and its twelve films, Saw at nine and counting, A Nightmare on Elm Street, where Freddy Krueger has invaded our dreams eight times, and Child's Play, which has pumped out eight movies too, along with a successful TV series.
'The Conjuring' Franchise Is the Top Dog at the Box Office
You would think that one of these certainly must be the highest-grossing horror franchise of all time, especially Halloween, with so many films under its belt and a recent, rather successful new trilogy. None of these horror icons have the biggest overall box office though. So who is the king? That title would belong to The Conjuring series of horror films, which has made an astounding $2.1 billion worldwide.
At first, you might be surprised to read this. Wait, there have only been three Conjuring movies, and while they did well, they weren't doing Star Wars-level box office numbers. But if you factor in all the spinoffs that make up The Conjuring universe, it starts to make sense. Not only were there the three Conjuring films, but three Annabelle movies, The Nun, and The Curse of La Llorona. While some of these films were great and others not so much, fans ate them up, turning each one into a very profitable success, which has only helped to further expand the franchise.
James Wan Started It All With the Original 'Conjuring' Trilogy
The Conjuring franchise started in 2013 with, well, The Conjuring. That first film came out at the perfect time. Horror fans had long grown bored with the "torture porn" craze seen in Saw and Hostel. It was time to get back to basics with a good old-fashioned evil entity, haunted house story akin to The Exorcist or The Amityville Horror. On the surface, director James Wan didn't seem like the right choice for this revival. He was the guy who co-created the Saw franchise after all. However, he had already shown with 2010's Insidious that he could create an intensely scary movie about being haunted by a demonic presence.
Wan reunited with his Insidious star Patrick Wilson and combined him with Vera Farmiga to tell the fascinating story of the real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Set in 1971s Rhode Island, the film, which followed the Warrens investigating a family's home where paranormal events are occurring, harkened back to that Amityville Horror feel. Good reviews and great word of mouth gave Wan a hit even bigger than Saw had been, leading to a whopping $320 million haul worldwide, all on a $20 million budget.
A most obvious sequel came three years later with The Conjuring 2. Though the budget doubled, it didn't matter. Wan, Wilson, and Farmiga were back for a story as creepy as the first, moving from Rhode Island to England to explore the now-famous Enfield poltergeist. When all was said and done, The Conjuring 2 made $321 million around the globe.
In 2021, the third film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, was released. It was not as effective as the first two entries for several reasons. One, though Wilson and Farmiga returned, Wan was not back in the director's chair. It resulted in a film that simply wasn't as scary as what had come before it. On top of this, the film came out in 2021, when the world was still in the grip of the pandemic and going to the theater didn't feel safe yet for a lot of us. Still, the film was a success, making $206 million at home and abroad.
'Annabelle' Didn't Live Up to 'The Conjuring' But Still Made Bank
The initial success of the first Conjuring movie led to a quick expansion of the Ed and Lorraine Warren world. Just a year later, The Annabelle part of the franchise was born. We couldn't wait to see more of that creepy doll first introduced in The Conjuring and learn more about it, especially knowing that it was based on a real, supposedly-possessed doll the couple kept in their home. The actual film didn't work. There was no James Wan, Patrick Wilson, or Vera Farmiga to connect to, which was much needed when the star of the film is a doll that doesn't move or speak. Annabelle is not a character like Chucky. It resulted in a dull film with lazy jump scares instead of that creeping dread that made The Conjuring experience so scary. No matter, even though critics and fans alike were disappointed, curiosity still brought us out, leading to an impressive $257 million, and all done for just $6 million.
Such a massive profit meant that we were getting a sequel, whether it seemed necessary or not. Surprisingly, Annabelle: Creation was a much better film. That success comes from putting the movie in the hands of David F. Sandberg just a year after his fright fest, Lights Out. It course-corrected what didn't work the first time, now aiming for goosebumps rather than cheap jumps. A thankful audience responded by turning out even more than the first time, as Annabelle: Creation took home $306 million around the world.
The trilogy concluded with 2019's Annabelle Comes Home. While not quite as good as the second film in this part of the franchise, the film is a fun one thanks to the return of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who bookend the events, and the talented Mckenna Grace carrying the plot the rest of the way. Though audiences were starting to get overwhelmed by the Conjuring saturation in cinemas, Annabelle Comes Home still made $231 million across the globe.
'The Nun' And 'The Curse Of La Llorona' Weren't Classics But We Still Went to See Them
In 2018, The Conjuring universe expanded even further with The Nun. This film served as a prequel to everything else, going back to 1952 to show the origins of the demon Valak. Wilson and Farmiga show up in very small roles, but this film had to stand on its own. As a cohesive movie, it stumbles. The Nun is usually regarded as the worst film in The Conjuring franchise. While parts of it were creepy, most of it made little sense, and outside of the scary scenes, it was simply boring. It still got our money anyway due to the success of The Conjuring and Annabelle. Despite it being at the bottom of the barrel creatively, The Nun scared up a staggering $365 million, making it the biggest box office success of the franchise.
The same could not be said for 2019's The Curse of La Llorona. The sixth film in The Conjuring franchise was a financial dud compared to everything else. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga weren't here. James Wan was only a producer. And the only notable name attached was Linda Cardellini. On top of that, many weren't even aware that it was a Conjuring film. The marketing campaign made it look like it was just another paint-by-numbers demon possession movie. It wasn't wrong. The film was criticized for being an uninspired jump scare fest with little else going for it. It did okay at the box office, making $123 million, which, with only a $9 million budget, made it a cheaply-made success. While it didn't live up to other films in The Conjuring franchise, it couldn't be considered a failure.
The franchise is going to continue to reign as the all-time horror king for the foreseeable future, with a fourth Conjuring film announced and The Nun 2 coming out later this year. At this rate, Michael Myers is going to need to find a way to put his chopped-up body back together and live to a hundred if any other franchise has a chance of catching up with the world James Wan created.