The Conjuring franchise has firmly established itself as one of the big beasts of the current horror golden age, and the latest spinoff, The Nun, looks like it’s set to have an absolutely monstrous opening weekend. Or at least, that’s according to Variety, who are reporting that early tracking indicates that the film’s going to open with $32 million, with some estimates putting it as high as $37 million.
That might not sound like a huge amount in a world where a blockbuster like Avengers: Infinity War can rake in a record-breaking $250m+ opening weekend, but bear in mind that The Nun has a relatively small budget and that profit multiplier starts to look awfully impressive. If nothing else, it adds a further coat of cement to the argument that horror films can be a studio’s bread and butter, and that audiences respond well to a traditionally scary ghost story that’s well-told.
Also working in the pic’s favor is a relatively empty field of competition on September 7th. Its competitors will be STX’s Peppermint, a vigilante thriller starring Jennifer Garner and God Bless the Broken Road, a faith-based film that was originally set to be released in 2016 but has had its release delayed several times. Against that undernourished competition, the tale of a killer ghost nun and the priests dispatched to ecclesiastically bust that ghost should clean up with ease.
If The Nun does as well as people expect it to, it’ll add to the impressive total haul of The Conjuring series (comprising the four Conjuring movies, Annabelle and its sequel) of $1.1 billion. I don’t know about you, but as a long time genre fan, I’m just tickled pink that I’m living in a world where horror is this good, not to mention this bankable.
