\n\tTalk about a scary-good box office streak.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Conjuring: Last Rites<\/a>,\u201d which scored a franchise-best launch<\/a> of $83 million domestically and $187 million globally over the weekend, has extended an epic theatrical run for Warner Bros<\/a>. as the seventh consecutive release to open above $40 million. No other studio has ever achieved that level of consistency at the box office.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter a terrible theatrical stretch with duds like 2024\u2019s \u201cJoker: Folie a Deux\u201d and this March\u2019s \u201cMickey 17\u201d and \u201cThe Alto Knights,\u201d the fortunes at Warner Bros. began to rebound with April\u2019s video game adaptation \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d ($162 million debut). The studio\u2019s turnaround continued with Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan\u2019s vampire thriller \u201cSinners\u201d ($48 million), followed by a quartet of summer offerings, \u201cFinal Destination Bloodlines\u201d ($51.6 million), Brad Pitt\u2019s \u201cF1: The Movie\u201d ($57 million), \u201cSuperman\u201d ($125 million) and director Zach Cregger\u2019s horror mystery \u201cWeapons\u201d ($43.5 million).<\/p>\n \n\tWhat\u2019s 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\u2019s \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps\u201d and \u201cThunderbolts,\u201d for example, dropped steeply after promising debuts.) \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d is the studio\u2019s biggest earner of the year with $957 million globally, followed by \u201cF1\u201d (which Warner Bros. distributed for Apple) with $617 million, \u201cSuperman\u201d with $613 million, \u201cSinners\u201d with $366 million, \u201cFinal Destination: Bloodlines\u201d with $307 million and \u201cWeapons\u201d with $251 million and counting.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWarner Bros. is having a fantastic run,\u201d \u00a0says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. \u201cThe studio made outstanding choices and took some big creative risks, and they\u2019re paying off.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tBack in the spring, Bong Joon Ho\u2019s sci-fi epic \u201cMickey 17\u201d with Robert Pattinson, as well as the Robert De Niro-led crime drama \u201cThe Alto Knights,\u201d had set the studio back at least $110 million in losses. But the remaining lineup has delivered some enviable profit margins. Case in point: \u201cSinners\u201d is expected to generate around $60 million in theatrical profits; \u201cSuperman\u201d around $125 million; \u201cFinal Destination: Bloodlines\u201d approximately $75 million; \u201cWeapons\u201d around $65 million (and counting), according to knowledgeable individuals. For \u201cF1,\u201d 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 \u201cConjuring.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThanks to the dramatic turnaround, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are fully off the hot seat. That wasn\u2019t the case a few months ago, given the studio\u2019s late 2024 and early 2025 run of box office disasters. Right before De Luca and Abdy had to grapple with a steady stream of headlines about whether or not they would keep their jobs, the duo ousted the studio\u2019s marketing chief, Josh Goldstine, and international distribution head Andrew Cripps. The surprise shakeup contributed to a growing sense of uncertainty at the studio.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cStudios get hot, and studios get cold,\u201d Gross adds. \u201cJust before this, they weathered a long, bad run. It won\u2019t last forever. Hopefully they\u2019ll remember this [run] when they go on a cold steak. That\u2019ll happen too; it always does.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThose outsized wins will take a bit of pressure off the next big Warner Bros. gamble, Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s epic \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d which opens later in September. That film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, cost at least $130 million to produce and requires roughly $300 million to break even at the box office. For context, Anderson\u2019s highest-grossing film is 2007\u2019s Western \u201cThere Will Be Blood,\u201d which earned $76.4 million globally.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d will be the studio\u2019s final release of the year. Then in 2026, Warner Bros. will deliver Emerald Fennell\u2019s \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d remake with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, director Maggie Gyllenhaal\u2019s $80 million \u201cFrankenstein\u201d spinoff \u201cThe Bride\u201d and two DC\u2019s adventures in \u201cSupergirl\u201d and \u201cClayface.\u201d There\u2019s also Anne Hathaway and\u00a0Ewan McGregor-led original sci-fi thriller \u201cFlowervale Street,\u201d video game sequel \u201cMortal Kombat II,\u201d an untitled film from \u201cBirdman\u201d director Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu and star Tom Cruise, and \u201cDune Part Three.\u201d On paper, it looks like another risky slate that spotlights genre fare and filmmaker-driven originals over time-tested franchises. But then again, most of the studio\u2019s 2025 slate didn\u2019t enter theaters as guaranteed hits. And we know how those bets paid off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talk about a scary-good box office streak. \u201cThe Conjuring: Last Rites,\u201d which scored a franchise-best launch of $83…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,68203,67,132,68,1021],"class_list":{"0":"post-209073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-the-conjuring-last-rites","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-warner-bros"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115166230898167177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}