EXCLUSIVE: We’re hearing that in early estimates that New Line’s horror pic The Nun is on its way to a heavenly-sent Thursday night of $4M+ which if these figures maintain will make it the best preview in the The Conjuring universe ever. Previews began at 7PM tonight.
These figures do not come from Warner Bros, but Deadline exclusive sources, and as we always couch they can be higher or lower by tomorrow morning. But the B.O. faithful (stat peeps) believe The Nun is blessed.
The best Thursday night posted by a Conjuring pic belongs to last summer’s Annabelle: Creation which scared up $4M before a $15M Friday and $35M opening weekend. The Conjuring 2 is the next best Thursday with $3.4M, followed by a $16.3M Friday in June 2016 and three-day opening of $40.4M. The Conjuring posted a Thursday night of $3.3M, followed by a $16.9M Friday, $41.8M opening; still the best for the franchise. Annabelle made $2.1M in previews, $15.4M Friday, and $37.1M opening over October 3-5, 2014. Reviews off of 64 submitted to Rotten Tomatoes are yielding a 33% Rotten score for The Nun, which means not every critic has filed. While both Conjuring movies and Annabelle: Creation earned great RT scores, Annabelle was able to lash at her 29% Rotten rating with the franchise’s third best weekend opening. The Nun cost a reported $22M before P&A. These New Line genre pics are always built to rain cash down on the Burbank, CA lot.
Tracking services have raised their opening for The Nun from where we saw them earlier in the week putting the range now at $47M-$52M in U.S./Canada at 3,876 theaters — the widest debut ever for a Conjuring pic besting the first weekend theater count of Annabelle: Creation (3,502). Should the Corin Hardy-directed pic reach that level, it’s a hands down record opening for the genre franchise. For the fifth weekend in a row, Warner Bros. will own the No. 1 spot at the box office, a sensation that began with The Meg on Aug. 10, and continued with another three No. 1 consecutive weeks for Crazy Rich Asians.
Nancy Tartaglione reports the following about the overseas prospects for The Nun saying that its global debut could reach as high as $97M. Overseas projections before any ticket sales have been counted are between $35M-$45M+, and likely on the high side. The release patterns on the previous Conjuring titles have been different internationally, but using the comp to Annabelle which is likewise a derivative of The Conjuring series, that movie bowed to about $40M in like-for-like markets, but not adjusted for exchange rates. There’s word of mouth and a clear corridor here that has no major openers while overseas holdovers will continue. The markets where The Nun will not be giving a blessing this session include France, Italy, Russia, Korea and Japan which all go next weekend. We hear that the UK and Mexico are tracking strongly. That’s not a surprise. Latin America leans into horror and the film held a junket in Mexico recently with a screening inside an old convent. Similarly, a UK screening was done in an old abbey. The last series pic, Annabelle Creation’s top markets where Mexico, Korea and Brazil. Mexico and Brazil led the original. The Conjuring 2 had a mix of Mexico, the UK, Korea, Brazil and Indonesia in the Top 5. Best overseas and global haul for a Conjuring pic belongs to Conjuring 2 with $217.9M abroad, $320M global.
STX Entertainment’s Jennifer Garner action pic Peppermint is also held previews tonight at 7PM.
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