The Conjuring Universe will expand even further as Warner Bros. Discovery sets a release date for The Nun 2, five years after the original. One of the most consistently successful franchises that Warner Bros. owns, The Conjuring Universe is made up of the titular franchise and multiple spin-offs, including an entire Annabelle trilogy. Spinning out of The Conjuring 2 was The Nun, which was released on September 7, 2018. The Nun focused on the malevolent spirit known as Valak, who originally debuted in the second Conjuring film.
The Nun was a huge hit at the box office, opening at $53.8 million. That is still the biggest opening weekend of any film in The Conjuring Universe. It went on to gross $365.6 million worldwide and became the highest-grossing film in the horror saga. Despite all that, it received the worst Rotten Tomatoes score and CinemaScore of any film in The Conjuring Universe. The box office returns were still enough to spur a sequel, which was first announced to be in development back in 2019. Since then, there have been a handful of updates here and there.
Warner Bros. Discovery has finally announced that The Nun 2 is coming to theaters. The studio has set the film for release on September 8, 2023. This is the exact same weekend that The Nun opened on back in 2018, marking a five-year gap between the release of the first film and the sequel. It will also be the first film in The Conjuring Universe since 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.
The Nun 2 is directed by Michael Chaves, who helmed both 2018’s The Curse of La Llorona and The Devil Made Me Do It. Warner Bros. officially announced the film as part of their slate back at CinemaCon in April 2022, but a lack of updates since then seemed to put the project on pause. This is the biggest piece of news horror fans have received yet about the spooky sequel. The news about The Nun 2 release date came in the wave of various other release date shuffles for Warner Bros. Discovery, including delays for both Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Currently, The Nun 2 is the only film dated for September 8, 2023. It will arrive a week after Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer 3, another franchise that is coming back after a five-year wait. Currently, no other films are dated for September 2023, although the month will likely fill up soon. By giving The Nun 2 the same weekend as its predecessor, it’s clear Warner Bros. hopes the new movie will strike the same box office gold. With 2023 seeing the release of the new The Exorcist film on October 13 and Saw 10 on October 27, The Nun 2 opening in early September will give it a month’s head start on the fall’s biggest horror films. This bodes well for its prospects, though only 2023 will be able to confirm how The Conjuring Universe is holding up.
