“The Conjuring: Last Rites,” which scored a franchise-best launch of $83 million domestically and $187 million globally over the weekend, has extended an epic theatrical run for Warner Bros. as the seventh consecutive release to open above $40 million. No other studio has ever achieved that level of consistency at the box office.
After a terrible theatrical stretch with duds like 2024’s “Joker: Folie a Deux” and this March’s “Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights,” the fortunes at Warner Bros. began to rebound with April’s video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie” ($162 million debut). The studio’s turnaround continued with Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s vampire thriller “Sinners” ($48 million), followed by a quartet of summer offerings, “Final Destination Bloodlines” ($51.6 million), Brad Pitt’s “F1: The Movie” ($57 million), “Superman” ($125 million) and director Zach Cregger’s horror mystery “Weapons” ($43.5 million).
What’s even better is that all of those films managed to stick around beyond opening weekend, a fate that several major releases recently failed to achieve. (Disney’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts,” for example, dropped steeply after promising debuts.) “A Minecraft Movie” is the studio’s biggest earner of the year with $957 million globally, followed by “F1” (which Warner Bros. distributed for Apple) with $617 million, “Superman” with $613 million, “Sinners” with $366 million, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” with $307 million and “Weapons” with $251 million and counting.
Back in the spring, Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi epic “Mickey 17” with Robert Pattinson, as well as the Robert De Niro-led crime drama “The Alto Knights,” had set the studio back at least $110 million in losses. But the remaining lineup has delivered some enviable profit margins. Case in point: “Sinners” is expected to generate around $60 million in theatrical profits; “Superman” around $125 million; “Final Destination: Bloodlines” approximately $75 million; “Weapons” around $65 million (and counting), according to knowledgeable individuals. For “F1,” Warner Bros. was paid a flat distribution fee as well as a percentage of revenues in line with certain box office benchmarks, resulting in theatrical profits of roughly $34 million. Warner Bros. declined to comment. A studio insider disputed these figures without providing specific numbers; the source added that Warner Bros. has made roughly $600 million in combined year-to-date theatrical profits before counting the latest “Conjuring.”
Warner Bros. Makes Box Office History After 7 Movies Open Above $40 Million
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 08 September 2025
