The Conjuring Universe has been the most successful shared Universe for Warner Bros. Every film that has come out under the banner of the ConVerse has been pretty profitable even though they might not have critical acclaim. But it seems that the good days of this shared continuity are done because Annabelle Comes Home has opened with the lowest numbers in the entire franchise.
The Curse of La Llorona is loosely related to the ConVerse and it managed to make $26 Million upon its opening. Even without a strong marketing back up, La Llorona turned out to be quite profitable for WB as it ended up with $122 having a production budget of just $9 Million. Now technically, this is the lowest grossing Conjuring Universe movie, but most of the people don’t even know that it exists within the same franchise. So, let’s just get back to Annabelle Comes Home.
The latest edition of the Annabelle franchise has opened up with just $20 Million, being $15 Million behind the initial predictions made by analysts. As of now, it stands at $78 Million worldwide and will surely make somewhere between 150-$200 Million if things didn’t go so well. That will certainly make this entry the weakest in the ConVerse.
The Conjuring opened with $41 Million and went on to make $319 Million worldwide. It was followed by Annabelle which opened with $37 Million and grossed $257 Million in total. Then came the sequels as The Conjuring 2 came out and earned $40 Million at its opening weekend, and then it went on to make $320 Million worldwide. Annabelle: Creation opened with the lowest opening weekend numbers thus far having brought in $35 Million. It then went on to bring in $306 Million worldwide.
The Nun had a major opening which accounted for $53 Million. The hype for this film was surreal even though the film was not. This hype allowed the film to go on & make $365 Million worldwide. That’s probably where the ConVerse peaked as people are really full of these films. The opening weekend of Annabelle comes home is proof of this because despite having a 69% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film hasn’t been able to convert its goodwill commercially. Now it will end up making even less than the first Annabelle film. Now only The Conjuring 3 can bring this franchise back to its former glory.
Here’s the verdict of the critics upon Annabelle Comes Home. See what the critics think of this film:
IndieWire – Eric Kohn
“Unlike the two-hour-plus Conjuring movies or the comparatively sprawling convent showdowns of The Nun, the new movie basically jams the archetypes of a John Hughes teen comedy into a minimalist haunted scenario. While that’s not enough to suppress the underlying gimmickry of the storytelling, Annabelle Comes Home at least manages to charm and frighten its way through the purest distillation of the Conjuring formula to date.”
You can read the full review here.
IGN – Juliet Bennett Rylah
“Instead of trying to out-creep The Conjuring, [Annabelle Comes Home] pivots into a lighter, simpler, funnier film with a tighter plot and a few fresh monsters (some of which fans of mythology and urban legends might recognize). If Annabelle Comes Home should be the last Annabelle-centric film in the series, it feels like a perfect final chapter.”
You can read the full review here.
Entertainment Weekly – Darren Franich
“Annabelle Comes Home is only a little scary, and too religiously dedicated to its own ongoing cash-printing megafranchise for big laughs. But the best moments in this low-key domestic horror film have a tossed-off quality, like the whole production cycle was a fun weekend for everybody.”
You can read the full review here.
Variety – Owen Gleiberman
“The grand result of all this cheesy metaphysical heavy lifting is that Annabelle Comes Home is a relentless but awkward throw-everything-at-the-viewer occult thriller that mixes ghosts, looming spirits, and — yes — inanimate objects coming to life, with the figure of Annabelle not so much at the scary center of the action as existing alongside it… Name your fear trigger, and it’s probably there, somewhere, in Annabelle Comes Home. It looks like a horror film, but it’s really the horror equivalent of speed dating.”
You can read the full review here.
The Hollywood Reporter – Justin Lowe
“With nearly all the action limited to an afternoon and a seemingly endless night of horror in the Warrens’ maze-like home, [Director Gary] Dauberman gives himself a compact, confined space to work with. Although it makes for an initially absorbing narrative and filmmaking challenge, with nowhere for the characters to run or hide, the thrills and shocks gradually become repetitive, as the writer-director recycles his own material, forcing the girls to evade the same threats again and again.”
You can read the full review here.
