You know, for a franchise that has grown slightly diminishing in returns for good, effective old school scares, and yours indeed would be remiss not to say that it’s been years since one of its installments has been something lingeringly creepy, The Conjuring series has shown remarkable resilience in times of pestilence, stoppages, streaming wars, and the aftermath of COVID. Altogether with the nine installments, this will pass $2.5 billion worldwide for the collective scarisome franchise. Warner Bros. has been breaking records, while the world has turned away from Marvel or outdated IPs.

So, it wouldn’t be out of the realm to say that The Conjuring: Last Rites‘s historic $83 million opening isn’t any surprise here, given how bankable the Warrens, Annabelle, Demon Nun, and even, erm, La Llorona (though not considered under the same banner, for some unknown reason) have been through these times. The fourth installment, with the Warrens at the helm, thanks to Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, has earned lukewarm reviews and a B from CinemaScore, which should be stable enough for it to continue gaining legs as Halloween will be upon us before we know it. This domestic debut is not too far from IT: Chapter 2‘s $91 million debut a few moons ago, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s $111 million from last year. With $104 million nabbed from overseas, it will top its predecessor’s $206.4 million worldwide cume in a few days (to be fair, The Devil Made Me Do It opened right after theaters were picking themselves up from the COVID storms, and released simultaneously on PVOD). Domestically, Last Rites has already toppled the total grosses of its predecessor and Annabelle Comes Home, and will surpass the domestic totals of Annabelle ($84 million) and The Nun II ($86.2 million) by tomorrow, barring inflation. Excellent news for the horror series: a set of professional ghostbusters can create a profitable franchise replica story.

In other news, Disney’s Hamilton took second place with $10 million in its debut, five years after it was put on VOD. Disney is toughing it out by bringing some big titles back for reissues, which is good news for their older works but not so much their new ones. Weapons dipped 49% in its fifth weekend with $5.37 million; the R-rated original has passed $251 million worldwide, and will probably pass $150 million domestically by Friday. Freakier Friday earned $3.8 million in its fifth weekend, as it passed $87.8 million domestic and $143 million globally. It still may end up right around $155-160 million worldwide, on par with its 2003 predecessor.

Caught Stealing earned $3.2 million in its second weekend, while The Roses earned $2.8 million. The Fantastic Four: First Steps has passed $511 million worldwide, while The Bad Guys 2 has passed $183 million. Superman will earn $615 million globally by Tuesday, while newcomer Light of the World earned $2.4 million.

And The Naked Gun is passing enough gas to reach $100 million worldwide.

Next weekend sees the release of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, The Long Walk, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, The History of Sound, and Tin Soldier.