The Nun - the latest spinoff of Warner Bros. horror franchise The Conjuring - has been pushed back from a July 2018 release to September. Launched in 2013 with director James Wan's original Conjuring film, the franchise has rapidly established itself as one of the most reliable in horror. Based on the purportedly true case files of married paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring struck a chord with audiences, even many who find the Warrens' claims preposterous.
Over the course of four films so far, The Conjuring franchise has hauled in a very impressive $426. 2 million domestically and a whopping $1.2 billion worldwide. Three of the four films have also earned positive notices from critics, with 2014's initial Annabelle spinoff serving as the only critical misstep so far. However, Annabelle still made $257 million on a $6.5 million budget, so there was never really a question that a sequel would appear. Thankfully, last year's Annabelle: Creation made even more money at the box office, and is generally considered an improvement in every respect.
Related: First Look At Conjuring Spinoff The Nun
2018 will see the arrival of the latest entry in The Conjuring franchise, entitled simply The Nun. The film is a spinoff of The Conjuring 2, which introduced the demon called Valak, who tormented the devoutly religious Lorraine Warren throughout the film. The Nun had been penciled in for a July 13 release date, right in the middle of the summer movie season. Now, Deadline reports that The Nun has been relocated to September 7.
The decision to move The Nun out of the summer season should not at all be seen as a lack of confidence by Warner Bros. Instead, the studio seems to be making a shrewd business move, based on recent history. Last fall, IT hit theaters on September 8, and proceeded to make roughly all of the money. Thus, it makes perfect sense that WB would be curious to see if lightning might strike twice with a new horror film opening on post-Labor Day weekend, one that even happens to be penned by IT writer Gary Dauberman.
That said, nobody realistically expects The Nun to take off quite like IT did. IT was a horror phenomenon rarely seen, shattering box office record after box office record. Still, there's no reason to think that The Nun can't keep up The Conjuring's streak of earning hundreds of millions of dollars on small - by Hollywood standards - budgets.
More: The Nun Writer Explains How It’s Different From Other Conjuring Films
Source: Deadline
