Movies
‘The Conjuring’ Producer Peter Safran Says There’s “A Lot of Fuel Left in the Tank” for Film & TV After ‘Last Rites’
Despite being billed as the final chapter, The Conjuring: Last Rites “was not a head fake,” franchise producer Peter Safran assures EW.
The ninth installment in The Conjuring universe may have closed the book on Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson‘s reign as Lorraine and Ed Warren, but that doesn’t mean the franchise has to stop there.
“It was the end of that particular version of the story with Patrick [Wilson] and Vera [Farmiga] and that version of The Conjuring,” Safran clarifies.
“I think that Last Rites shows that there is a lot of fuel left in the tank,” he adds. That assertion is hard to dispute given the record-breaking film’s $494 million worldwide gross.
“There’s so much more to it that we haven’t dug into,” says Safran. “So the truth is, I think there’s really exciting ways to go with both film and television, frankly. It would be incredibly satisfying. People have been on this journey with us for a dozen years now. I think they want more.”
The Conjuring: Last Rites introduced Mia Tomlinson as the adult version of Ed and Lorraine’s daughter, Judy, along with Tony Spera as her future husband, Ben Hardy.
“People fall in love with Patrick and Vera, and Ed and Lorraine. So I think there’s a lot to do,” Safran continues. “The introduction, in a real way, of Judy and Tony, I think, people love. The feedback we got was they love those characters. So I think that there’ll be more to come.”
Indeed there will, as HBO Max has already announced a Conjuring TV series with Nancy Won as showrunner. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. is reportedly developing a Conjurng prequel movie with Rodrigue Huart in talks to direct.
Curry Barker’s Obsession has been on a generational run at the box office these last several weeks, with the incredible word-of-mouth driving the box office totals higher and higher and higher with each passing week. After a debut weekend of $17 million, Obsession made a whopping $23 million in its second weekend, and then scared up $26.4 million in its third weekend. In its fourth weekend, Obsession just scared up another $25.6 million in the U.S.!
Deadline notes in a report this morning, “Obsession reps the biggest fourth weekend ever for a horror movie ahead of 1999’s Blair Witch Project which did $24.3M.”
Worldwide, Obsession is now the highest grossing movie in history for Focus Features. The current worldwide total is $224.7 million, while the domestic total is $152.1 million.
That also makes Obsession the highest grossing horror movie of 2026, far exceeding the $207.9 million worldwide total ($121.9 million domestically) of Scream 7 earlier this year!
Yes, the highest grossing horror movie of 2026 is an ORIGINAL HORROR MOVIE!
The best part? The production budget for Obsession was just $750,000, with Focus Features acquiring the film for a reported $15 million. Even when you factor in the marketing spend and the fact that theaters get their own sizable cut, this one is a MASSIVE win for Focus.
From A24 and director Kane Parsons, Backrooms is already nipping at the heels of that record after just a couple weeks in release. The current domestic total of Backrooms is $135 million, while the worldwide total is now sitting at a very healthy $212.6 million. That means Backrooms has also already surpassed Scream 7, and may soon pass Obsession as well.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Inde Navarrette (“Superman & Lois”) and Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”) star.
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