Movies
New Line Turns ‘The Conjuring’ Into Franchise, Forgets It Owns ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street,’ Too…
Variety is reporting that, with The Conjuring (read our review) looking like a sleeper hit, New Line is already working on bringing a sequel to life.
James Wan’s demonic possession thriller opens Friday in the wake of off-the-charts test screening results and strong reviews. Set in Rhode Island in 1971, the story is based on the work of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren — portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor play father and mother of the five Perron girls who were terrorized by the haunted house.
The most hilarious aspect of the article is a quote from New Line president Toby Emmerich, who expresses his deep love for horror, even though the studio just gave away the rights to Jason Voorhees, and still hasn’t got a new A Nightmare on Elm Street into development. “Horror is very much a part of the DNA of New Line — Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, The Rite, and the Final Destination films,” Emmerich explains. “This is as good a horror movie as we’ve ever made…. We think it will have great playability.”
Emmerich told Variety that New Line is exploring a potential franchise based on the Warrens’ investigations, which also involved cases that wound up as the movies The Amityville Horror and The Haunting in Connecticut. “We have Lorraine’s permission and support, and we are working on developing another film,” Emmerich said.
The team of Carey Hayes and Chad Hayes, who penned The Conjuring, are on board as writers for the sequel. The brothers interviewed Lorraine Warren extensively as part of developing the script.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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