It’s all about narratives, right? What’s the writer trying to spin and how are they interpreting the news/numbers? While New Line Cinema’s Annabelle Comes Home (read our review) – the third film in the Annabelle franchise and seventh in the Conjuring Universe – took the second spot in this weekend’s box office, it’s also the worst opening of them all.
Sitting at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes with an equally strong audience score, Annabelle Comes Home opened behind Toy Story 4 with an estimated $20.3M opening. If you include the extended week, it’s sitting at $31.2M. While most mainstream media will peg this as a failure, specifically because it’s the weakest opening of them all, it’s actually yet another hit for the studio and James Wan‘s Atomic Monster.
ALSO READ: A Breakdown of the New Conjuring Demons in Annabelle Comes Home! [Exclusive]
With a global opening of $76M, Annabelle Comes Home is already in the profit zone and everything from here on out is gravy. It’s likely to top $150M in its full run, which is astounding for a film budgeted in the $12-20M range. Also, it’s important to note that films are taking a pounding from this summer’s clutter, including that of Godzilla, Child’s Play and even Ma, and that New Line made the conscious decision to open their doll-themed film against Child’s Play and Toy Story. Some people think clutter is a myth, but here’s your evidence: New Line’s Conjuring-lite spinoff The Curse of La Llorona was smashed by critics and fans, and still opened to $26M – more than that of Annabelle Comes Home. In NO WORLD should this have happened.
Is it possible we’re experiencing some Conjuring fatigue? Sure, it’s possible, but not enough to make a dent in this low budget franchise that keeps finding a way to make hundreds of millions with each sequel. With Conjuring 3 now in production and several spinoffs in development, expect another decade of supernatural horror from New Line and Atomic Monster. Now if only we can get an Elm Street sequel…
