What the fuck just happened?

Our number one movie–by an absolute landslide–is The Conjuring: Last Rites, which demolished tracking in a manner we haven’t seen since the release of A Minecraft Movie back in April. The “final” installment in the most unusual “cinematic universe” of recent memory had been expected to bring in a respectable $35 million. Instead it brought in a whopping $83 million, which is not only a best for the franchise, but the third-biggest premiere ever for a horror movie, behind only the 2017 and 2019 It films.

Is tracking dead? Should we even bother talking about it anymore? Between it overestimating summer tentpoles like Superman and Fantastic Four and severely underestimating Last Rites, who the hell can even say what’s going on? Clearly walk-up business was a major factor here, as audiences apparently didn’t feel the need to buy their tickets in advance for this “final” outing for the ghostbusting married couple. For those keeping score, Last Rites obliterated the entire domestic gross of 2021’s The Devil Made Me Do It, which brought in a total of $65 million as the box office was still in COVID recovery and during HBO Max’s commercially dubious “same day stream and screen” campaign. Did they leave money on the table by not waiting?

That’s the same question executives at Disney are asking today regarding Hamilton, which brought in an excellent $10 million on less than 2,000 screens. This is no doubt only going to theaters this weekend due to a contractional obligation to do so, as this is the same filmed production that’s been available on Disney+ since 2020. When Disney paid big money for the rights, the intention was to give it a full-blown theatrical run, but they instead dumped it on streaming unceremoniously during the pandemic in a desperate attempt to have new content available on that platform. Who knows how many dollars this would’ve brought in on the big screen if they hadn’t done that? If nothing else, this proves there is still interest in the Broadway musical phenomenon, so a true “movie” version is bound to be on the way eventually.

Sneaking its way into the top ten is Light of the World, an independently-produced animated flick about Jesus with an art style heavily inspired by Disney movies from the 90s. And you know what, this one didn’t look half-bad. Sadly it’s still a Christian film that is ultimately trying to convert an audience who already believes in Jesus, and I wish such Biblical outings would allow themselves to focus on entertainment more. Still, good for this film for getting made at all, as it didn’t have the heavenly voice cast The King of Kings had going for it earlier this year. Light brought in $2.4 million on roughly 2,000 venues.

As for our holdovers, well, Weapons is still bringing in cash. And nothing else is. That includes last weekend’s Caught Stealing, which was inevitably going to crash and burn once word got out that it’s much darker than its goofy trailers would lead you to believe. As for The Roses, I would like to see it, but it’s still not playing here, so I guess Salisbury, MD hates British comedy or something.

Next week, things get busy with four wide releases, including Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, the fourth Downton Abbey finale, the brutal The Long Walk, and the 30th anniversary re-release of Toy Story. Stay tuned!

Anyway, the top ten, via The Numbers (Deadline takes their grand old time getting their chart up these days)