The ninth chapter of the Conjuring Universe, and the fourth starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as real-life demon hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren, was expected to top off somewhere between a $40 and $50 million weekend debut. Warner Bros. expected something closer to $35 million.
With Thursday and Friday receipts counted, Last Rites looks to be marching towards a door-blowing $65 million opening, which is not only the best opening for the Warren franchise, it also bests all nine entries in the entire Conjuring Universe. The previous best was 2018’s The Nun’s $54 million opening.
Additionally, Last Rites can claim the fifth-best September opening in movie history, along with the best horror opening of this year.
So, what’s going on here?
My guess is this…
Everyone knew this would be the final chapter starring Wilson and Farmiga, and after three movies and 12 years, moviegoers feel a real affection for this couple. Ed and Lorraine Warren are a rarity in movies today — wholesome, openly Catholic, decent, caring people who love their only child, are devout in their faith, and enjoy a loving, stable, normal, and romantic marriage. The Warrens live in the suburbs. They believe Christ died on their behalf. They risk their own lives to help other families plagued by demons. Ed and Lorraine Warren are nice, normal, interesting, sweet, and sincere people, and whether they recognize it or not, people are attracted to goodness and decency.
People are especially attracted to this when it comes from a broken Hollywood system that portrays men as degenerates, feminine, and toxic; portrays women as masculine, strident, and obnoxious girlbosses; portrays families as dysfunctional; portrays the suburbs as stifling and hypocritical; and portrays the Christian faith as oppressive.
In the Conjuring series, Ed is a masculine and moral family-protector; Lorraine is feminine and maternal; the Warren family is stable and central to the characters’ lives; the suburbs are idyllic; the Christian faith is real, necessary, and enriches those who embrace it.
These days, that approach is not only original, it’s downright countercultural.
Now, you might ask, ‘How can an R-rated horror movie be wholesome?’
That’s what makes the Conjuring’s Warren series so special. It is the Warrens’ wholesomeness v. a very real and terrifying Satan that lifts it above so many other Satan movies. It’s R-rated, sure, but so was The Passion of the Christ (2004). Much of the Bible would be R-rated. It’s not the content, it is what the content says to us. It’s the theme that matters.
Ticketbuyers want to watch the Warrens be the Warrens. Sure, we’re looking to get scared, but we’re primarily there because we really, really like these characters.
As I said in my Last Rites review, to their great credit, the filmmakers behind the Warren movies understand that the appeal is the Warrens themselves and their everyday decency, which is why Last Rites is more of a family movie than a horror movie. This final chapter is a poignant and frequently touching farewell to Hollywood’s last remaining Normal People.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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