The Conjuring movies are ten released films, and together they have grossed about $2.9 billion worldwide. They split into four main-line Conjuring films, three Annabelle films, two Nun films and one standalone, The Curse of La Llorona. Warner Bros. distributed all ten in the US, and the series has been one of the most profitable in horror: the ten known production budgets add up to roughly $275.5 million, against a combined gross more than ten times that.
This page puts the films in release order, from The Conjuring in July 2013 to The Conjuring: Last Rites in September 2025. An eleventh film, The Conjuring: First Communion, is dated for September 2027 and has not been released. Where a film is set is a separate question from when it reached cinemas, and the in-story years in the table are the years each story takes place rather than release dates.
The Conjuring Movies by Release Date: Director, Runtime and Worldwide Gross
| Film | US release | Set in | Director | Runtime | Worldwide gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Conjuring | 19 July 2013 | 1971 | James Wan | 112 min | $321,293,998 |
| Annabelle | 3 October 2014 | 1967 | John R. Leonetti | 99 min | $257,589,952 |
| The Conjuring 2 | 10 June 2016 | 1977 | James Wan | 134 min | $322,819,915 |
| Annabelle: Creation | 11 August 2017 | Mid-1950s | David F. Sandberg | 109 min | $306,592,201 |
| The Nun | 7 September 2018 | 1952 | Corin Hardy | 96 min | $366,082,797 |
| The Curse of La Llorona | 19 April 2019 | 1973 | Michael Chaves | 93 min | $123,233,739 |
| Annabelle Comes Home | 26 June 2019 | Early 1970s | Gary Dauberman | 106 min | $231,252,591 |
| The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It | 4 June 2021 | 1981 | Michael Chaves | 112 min | $206,444,123 |
| The Nun II | 8 September 2023 | 1956 | Michael Chaves | 110 min | $269,667,073 |
| The Conjuring: Last Rites | 5 September 2025 | 1986 | Michael Chaves | 135 min | $499,256,445 |
Two entries carry a decade rather than a year. Annabelle: Creation opens on a dollmaker’s workshop in 1943 and then jumps twelve years to its main story in the mid-1950s, and Annabelle Comes Home plays out in the early 1970s after a prologue set in 1968.
Conjuring Movies in Release Order, Film by Film
Each film below is a self-contained story, listed in the order it reached cinemas. It is a longer run than the Harry Potter series, which stopped at eight films, though each Conjuring entry stands on its own.
The Conjuring (2013): The Film That Started the Series
James Wan directed the first film, with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. They are called to help a family of seven who have moved into an isolated Rhode Island farmhouse and are being tormented by something in the home.
It was made on a reported budget of about $20 million and finished with more than $321 million worldwide. The film is presented as based on the Perron family haunting in Harrisville, Rhode Island, which is the Warrens’ account of events.
Annabelle (2014): The Doll Gets Its Own Film
John R. Leonetti directed this origin story for the doll seen in the opening of The Conjuring. A young expectant couple in late-1960s Los Angeles is terrorised after a cult attacks their home and a vintage doll becomes the focus of a malevolent presence. Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton and Alfre Woodard lead the cast, and the Warrens do not appear.
The reported budget was about $6.5 million, the smallest in the series, and the gross was about 40 times that. The Warrens describe the real Annabelle as a Raggedy Ann doll in their collection, an account that is disputed, and the film’s plot is fictional.
The Conjuring 2 (2016): London and a Return to the Main Line
Wan returned for the sequel, which takes Ed and Lorraine to a council house in north London to help a single mother and her children who say they are being haunted. The couple, already shaken by a recent case, must decide whether the family is genuinely under threat. Its prologue, set in 1976, revisits the Amityville case.
At 134 minutes it is one of the two longest films in the series, and its reported budget of about $40 million was double that of the original. It earned just over $322.8 million, the highest total of the first four films released.
Annabelle: Creation (2017): A Dollmaker and an Orphanage
David F. Sandberg directed this prequel about a dollmaker and his wife, who lost their young daughter years earlier and open their rural home to a nun and several girls from a closed orphanage. The girls soon discover that something in the house is interested in the family’s old doll. Miranda Otto, Anthony LaPaglia, Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson star.
The story is set in the mid-1950s, twelve years after its 1943 prologue. A reported budget of about $15 million brought $306.6 million worldwide, more than the first Annabelle film earned, and no Warren case is involved.
The Nun (2018): The Highest Grosser Until 2025
Corin Hardy directed this story of a young nun’s death at a remote Romanian abbey. The Vatican sends a priest with a haunted past and a novice about to take her vows to investigate, and they find that something evil is at work within the abbey walls. Taissa Farmiga, Demian Bichir and Bonnie Aarons head the cast.
Valak, the demon from The Conjuring 2, is given a fictional backstory here, and no Warren case is involved. A reported budget of about $22 million became $366.1 million worldwide, the best result in the series until Last Rites, in a runtime of 96 minutes.
The Curse of La Llorona (2019): The Standalone
Michael Chaves directed this story of a social worker and her two children in 1970s Los Angeles, who are targeted by the Weeping Woman, a vengeful spirit from Mexican folklore. With little help from the authorities, she turns to a former priest who has studied such curses. Linda Cardellini and Raymond Cruz star.
It is the series’ shortest film at 93 minutes and its lowest earner at $123.2 million, from a reported budget of about $9 million. The link to the rest of the series runs through one returning character, Father Perez, played by Tony Amendola, who also appears in Annabelle. The Warrens do not appear, and some counts of the series leave this film out.
Annabelle Comes Home (2019): The Warrens Return in Support
Gary Dauberman directed the third Annabelle film, in which Ed and Lorraine lock the possessed doll in the artifacts room of their home. When they leave their daughter Judy in the care of a babysitter, a friend’s curiosity unleashes the spirits in the room. Farmiga and Wilson appear in supporting roles, with Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman and Katie Sarife in front.
The film opens around the time of The Conjuring’s 1968 prologue, while the main night in the artifacts room sits in the early 1970s. Its reported budget is about $30 million, and it grossed $231.3 million, the lowest total of the Annabelle films.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021): The Courtroom Case
Chaves directed the third main-line film, in which Ed and Lorraine help a young man accused of murder whose lawyer wants to claim demonic possession as his defence. The investigation leads the Warrens to a darker cult-linked source of the haunting. The story follows the Brookfield, Connecticut case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson.
Johnson’s defence was rejected and he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter on 24 November 1981, as the Skeptical Inquirer’s account of the case records. The film’s reported budget of about $40 million and its $206.4 million gross make it the lowest earner of the four main-line films.
The Nun II (2023): Sister Irene Returns
Four years after the events at the Romanian abbey, a priest is murdered and Sister Irene is drawn back into the fight against the demonic nun Valak. She must stop it before it can finish what it started. Chaves directed, with Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet and Storm Reid in the cast.
The setting moves to France in 1956, and no Warren case is involved. A reported budget of about $38 million produced $269.7 million worldwide, which is less than the first Nun film earned from a smaller reported budget.
The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025): The Warrens’ Final Case
Chaves directed the fourth main-line film, which Warner Bros. bills as the final appearance of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren. The couple take on one of the most disturbing cases of their career, the haunting of a Pennsylvania family, with their daughter now involved in the investigation. It is inspired by the Smurl family haunting in West Pittston.
It is the longest film in the series at 135 minutes, the highest earner at $499.3 million, and the biggest opener, with $84,006,121 in the US on opening. Its reported budget of about $55 million is also the largest.
How the Series Splits: Main Line, Annabelle, The Nun and La Llorona
The four main-line films carry the Conjuring title and follow the Warrens: The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, The Devil Made Me Do It and Last Rites. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga lead all four. The three Annabelle films follow the doll, and only Annabelle Comes Home brings the Warrens back, in supporting roles.
The two Nun films follow Valak and Sister Irene, and La Llorona stands apart as a folklore story. That makes five films with the Warrens on screen and five without. Michael Chaves has directed four of the ten.
Budgets Against Grosses: Why These Films Kept Getting Made
The reported budgets total about $275.5 million for ten films, and the worldwide grosses total $2,904,232,834, a ratio of roughly 10.5 to 1. The best ratio belongs to Annabelle, which cost about $6.5 million and earned about $257.6 million, around 40 times its cost. The Nun cost about $22 million and returned about 16.6 times that, and Last Rites, the most expensive film at about $55 million, still returned roughly 9.1 times.
Even the weakest earner, La Llorona, took more than 13 times its reported budget. The highest earner is Last Rites at $499.3 million and the lowest is La Llorona at $123.2 million. Slashfilm ranked the series first among horror franchises at about $2.9 billion in April 2026, ahead of Alien at $1.98 billion.
What Is Still to Come: The Conjuring: First Communion
An eleventh film is dated for 10 September 2027, and Warner Bros. noted that the date can change. The Conjuring: First Communion is a prequel about the young Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Garrett Wareing and Amanda Fix, and it is directed by Rodrigue Huart from a script by Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg.
What a Lifetime Gross Does Not Tell You
Every gross in the table is a lifetime worldwide total, so it keeps climbing for as long as a film plays anywhere and it is never final. None of the totals is adjusted for inflation, which flatters the later entries: Last Rites at $499.3 million and the 2013 original at $321.3 million are not counted in the same dollars, twelve years apart.
The budgets are reported estimates rather than studio-published figures, at $40 million for The Devil Made Me Do It, $38 million for The Nun II and $55 million for Last Rites. A production budget covers what it cost to shoot and finish the film and nothing else, so the distance between a budget and a gross is not the profit. The Warrens’ case files are their own account, and the Skeptical Inquirer disputes them, holding that their claims are unverified.
Choosing Which Conjuring Films to Watch
If time is short, the four main-line films carry the Warrens’ story and Last Rites closes it. Annabelle, The Nun and La Llorona work as separate horror films, so a viewer can dip into any of them without the rest. For a wider look at the genre, the best horror movies collects films the Library of Congress has preserved, and the James Bond films covers a series built on a very different scale.
Runtimes run from 93 minutes for La Llorona to 135 for Last Rites, which makes the whole series about 18 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Conjuring movies are there?
Ten films have been released in the Conjuring series: four main-line films, three Annabelle films, two Nun films and The Curse of La Llorona. Variety counts nine because it leaves La Llorona out. An eleventh, First Communion, is dated for 10 September 2027.
Which Conjuring movies star Ed and Lorraine Warren?
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play the Warrens in The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, The Devil Made Me Do It and Last Rites, and appear in a supporting turn in Annabelle Comes Home. Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, The Nun, The Nun II and La Llorona have no Warrens on screen.
Which Conjuring film made the most money?
The Conjuring: Last Rites leads with $499.3 million worldwide, followed by The Nun at $366.1 million, The Conjuring 2 at $322.8 million and The Conjuring at $321.3 million. La Llorona is lowest at $123.2 million.
Are the Conjuring movies based on true stories?
Partly. The four main-line films adapt Warren case files, including the Perron, Enfield, Brookfield and Smurl cases, but those accounts are the Warrens’ own and skeptics dispute them. The Nun films are fictional, and La Llorona draws on a Mexican folk legend.
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