Warner Bros. Breaks Records With Unstoppable Box Office Streak

Warner Bros. has set a new record at the box office. The studio’s latest release, The Conjuring: Last Rites, opened to $83 million in the U.S. and $187 million worldwide, the best start ever for the horror franchise.

More importantly, it became the seventh movie in a row from Warner Bros. to debut with over $40 million, something no other studio has achieved before.

Just a few months ago, Warner Bros. was struggling. Big projects like Joker: Folie à Deux, Mickey 17, and The Alto Knights lost large amounts of money.

The turnaround began in April when A Minecraft Movie shocked the industry with a $162 million debut. That was followed by Ryan Coogler’s Sinners with $48 million, Final Destination: Bloodlines with $51.6 million, Brad Pitt’s racing drama F1: The Movie with $57 million, James Gunn’s Superman with $125 million, and Zach Cregger’s Weapons with $43.5 million.

Unlike many recent releases from other studios, these films did not collapse after opening weekend. A Minecraft Movie has already made $957 million worldwide. F1 has earned $617 million, Superman $613 million, Sinners $366 million, Final Destination: Bloodlines $307 million, and Weapons $251 million and climbing.

Analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research told Variety, “Warner Bros. is having a fantastic run. The studio made outstanding choices and took some big creative risks, and they’re paying off.”

The profits have been impressive as well. According to sources with knowledge of the numbers, Sinners is expected to bring in about $60 million in profit, Superman around $125 million, Final Destination: Bloodlines $75 million, and Weapons $65 million.

For F1, Warner Bros. collected a flat fee plus bonuses tied to ticket sales, leading to about $34 million in earnings. Insiders say the studio has taken in around $600 million in theatrical profits this year even before adding in The Conjuring: Last Rites. Warner Bros. itself declined to comment.

The success has taken pressure off studio chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who were facing criticism earlier in the year after a series of flops and leadership shakeups.

Gross pointed out the nature of the industry, saying, “Studios get hot, and studios get cold. Just before this, they weathered a long, bad run. It won’t last forever. Hopefully they’ll remember this [run] when they go on a cold streak. That’ll happen too; it always does.”

The streak now shifts attention to Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. With a budget of at least $130 million, the film will need to make around $300 million just to break even. Anderson’s biggest hit so far, There Will Be Blood, earned only $76.4 million worldwide, so expectations are high.

After that release, Warner Bros. will close out the year and turn to 2026. The upcoming slate includes Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights remake with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride, and new DC projects Supergirl and Clayface. Other titles include Mortal Kombat II, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s untitled film with Tom Cruise, Anne Hathaway’s sci-fi thriller Flowervale Street, and Dune Part Three.

The lineup is risky, with a mix of genre movies and director-led projects instead of relying only on big franchises. But as 2025 showed, some of the year’s biggest hits weren’t expected to succeed either.

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