Despite a rather shaky critical reception (28% on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing), the latest entry into The Conjuring franchise has proven that horror is healthier than it’s been in decades, and we couldn’t be happier about it.
This weekend, The Nun raked in a whopping $131 million worldwide, on a budget of just $22 million. Broken down, that’s $53.5 million on home turf and $77.5 million coming in from overseas, making for a very, very impressive haul. It’s also a franchise best, with that $53.5 million domestic total trampling over all previous entries in the series.
For the record, they were $41.8m for The Conjuring, $40.4m for The Conjuring 2, $37.1m for Annabelle and $35m for Annabelle: Creation. We can only imagine how happy Warner Bros. and New Line must be about the health of the franchise and you can probably expect films in the Conjuring universe from now until the heat death of the world.
That being said, not everyone’s overly impressed with The Nun. As we mentioned above, critics haven’t been too kind to it, with our very own Matt Donato saying the following in his review:
The Nun avoids such falls from Conjurverse grace as Annabelle, but pales in comparison to top-notch nightmare efforts like The Conjuring or The Conjuring 2. Scares are often on the generic side (pitch-black doorway, hand reaches out), and while some wild effects work enjoys the zanier side of Hell’s mouth opening up to spit venom across Earth’s surface, it’s missing the masterfully torturous tone that Wan’s universe otherwise aims for.
Hardly the most damning words, but it’s clear that this is far from the franchise’s best effort. Still, those numbers at the box office speak louder than any review can and with The Nun performing so well financially, and projects like The Crooked Man and Annabelle 3 already in the works, fans needn’t worry about this particular cinematic universe going anywhere.
