Universal’s attempt at replicating Marvel Studios’ shared universe model and applying it to the horror genre didn’t go so well at first, and they’ve since admitted that the Dark Universe experiment was a total failure. But Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man certainly got things off on the right foot the second time around.
On the other side of town, meanwhile, Warner Bros. have not only managed to find success using the MCU formula for their own superhero series, but they’ve also established The Conjuring Universe as the single biggest brand in horror. So far, the two Conjuring movies and five spinoffs have raked in over $1.9 billion at the box office, and next year’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, a sequel for The Nun and a film based on The Crooked Man look set to continue the brand’s consistent streak of success.
The third Conjuring will mark the first installment not to be directed by James Wan, but the latest chapter is keeping it in the family by having The Curse of La Llorona‘s Michael Chaves take over, while Wan retains both story and producer credits. And though The Devil Made Me Do It may have been pushed back by almost nine months as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones that told us Neve Campbell would be returning for Scream 5 and a new Exorcist movie was in the works before either was officially confirmed – that The Conjuring 4 has already been given the green light and is in the early stages of development.
This is hardly surprising, of course, given that the first two made over $300 million each and hold the best reviews for any entries in The Conjuring Universe, but it further reinforces the idea that Warner Bros. are keen to keep monetizing one of their most lucrative enterprises for the foreseeable future.
