• by Wayne Friedman , Today

Warner Bros.' “The Conjuring: Last Rites” scared up the tepid movie box office with a surprising $83 million in U.S./Canada revenue, according to IMDb Box Office Mojo, on the first weekend of September -- making it the third-biggest horror movie in box-office history.

The latest edition of “The Conjuring” franchise bested 2018’s "The Nun" edition -- which earned $53.8 million on its opening weekend.

"The Conjuring: Last Rites” was estimated to pull in a modest $50 million to $60 million. There have been nine films in the “Conjuring” universe, which include movies under the brand names "The Nun" and "Annabelle."

Built-in word-of-mouth, and an existing strong franchise brand interest, enabled Warner Bros. to spend a very modest $9.1 million on national TV advertising -- coming from 3,820 airings, resulting in 1.9 billion impressions.

TV spend included advertising on networks such as Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS, Adult Swim, TNT, TLC, Food Network (“Big Bang Theory”, “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers) --- as well as programming such as college football (on Fox, ABC, ESPN) MLB Baseball (on TBS), and “WWE Friday Night Smackdown” (USA Network).

The horror movie comes after lackluster theatrical openings for much of August.

However, Warner Bros. has been on a roll, with the studio pulling in more than $40 million box-office revenue opening weekends for consecutive movie openings this year: “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “F1: The Movie,” “Superman,” and “Weapons.”

After “Last Rites” on the weekend was a re-release of Walt Disney’s “Hamilton” ($10 million in box office); “Weapons” ($5.4 million); Disney’s “Freakier Friday”($3.8 million); and Sony Picture’s “Caught Stealing” ($3.2 million).