The Conjuring Universe

Lore & Background

The franchise consists of three films in the main series: The Conjuring (2013), The Conjuring 2 (2016), and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021). The first two were directed by James Wan and the third by Michael Chaves. The first two installments revolve around two of the Warrens' many famous paranormal cases, with the first film depicting the case of the Perron family in Rhode Island, and the second focusing on the Enfield poltergeist case while briefly referring to the events that inspired The Amityville Horror. The third entry revolves around the murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson in 1981 in Connecticut.

The franchise also includes spin-off films: Annabelle (2014), Annabelle: Creation (2017), and Annabelle Comes Home (2019), which explore the origins of the demonic doll, as well as The Nun (2018) and The Nun II (2023), which delve into the backstory of the entity Valak.

Reader's Guide

The Conjuring Universe has been commercially successful, grossing $2.7 billion against a combined budget of $263 million, becoming the highest-grossing horror franchise to date. The franchise has received mixed reviews overall. The first two Conjuring films were met with generally positive reviews, with praise for James Wan's directing and the main cast's performances, particularly Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga's on-screen chemistry as Ed and Lorraine. Critics acknowledged the effect the films have had on popular culture and the production of modern horror films. The third entry received mixed reviews, considered weaker than previous installments. The Annabelle series received mixed to negative reviews for its first entry, generally positive for Annabelle: Creation, and mixed for Annabelle Comes Home. The Nun received generally negative reviews, while The Nun II received mixed reviews. Despite critical variance, the three main films and five spin-offs were successful at the box office, with combined earnings of over $2.1 billion worldwide against a combined budget of $208 million, making the franchise the highest-grossing horror franchise in history and one of the most critically acclaimed.

Did You Know?

• The first two Conjuring films were directed by James Wan, while the next two were directed by Michael Chaves.
• Development began over 20 years before the first film's debut, when Ed Warren played a tape of Lorraine Warren's interview with Carolyn Perron for producer Tony DeRosa-Grund.
• The spin-off films allowed the creators to 'just explore different sub-genres in the horror genre', according to James Wan.

The Two-Decade Road to the Screen

The Conjuring Universe did not arrive fully formed. Its genesis stretches back more than twenty years before the first film hit theaters, rooted in a moment when Ed Warren played a recording of Lorraine Warren's original interview with Carolyn Perron for producer Tony DeRosa-Grund. At the tape's end, Warren reportedly told DeRosa-Grund that if they could not turn this story into a movie, he did not know what they could. DeRosa-Grund wrote the initial treatment and spent nearly fourteen years attempting to greenlight the project. An early deal with Gold Circle Films, the company behind The Haunting in Connecticut, collapsed when a contract could not be finalized. Eventually, DeRosa-Grund partnered with producer Peter Safran and brought in sibling screenwriters Chad and Carey W. Hayes, who shifted the narrative perspective from the Perron family to the Warrens themselves, conducting numerous phone interviews with Lorraine to nail down details. By mid-2009, the property triggered a six-studio bidding war. After a failed transaction with Summit Entertainment sent the project into turnaround, New Line Cinema stepped in, and a deal was signed in November of that year.

A Universe Built on Interconnected Cases

The Conjuring Universe operates on a two-track narrative architecture. The main series—spanning The Conjuring (2013), The Conjuring 2 (2016), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), and The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)—follows Ed and Lorraine Warren as they assist individuals besieged by supernatural forces. Each installment is anchored to a specific alleged case: the Perron family's haunted farmhouse in Rhode Island, the Enfield poltergeist, and the 1981 murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson in Connecticut. The spin-off films, by contrast, peel back the mythology behind the entities the Warrens encountered. The Annabelle trilogy (2014, 2017, 2019) traces the cursed doll's history, while The Nun (2018) and The Nun II (2023) explore the origins of the demonic entity Valak, first glimpsed in the second Conjuring film. This structure lets the franchise expand its lore outward while keeping the Warrens' investigations at the center.

Record-Breaking Revenue Amid Divided Critics

No horror franchise in cinema history has matched the Conjuring Universe's commercial footprint. Across its eight films, the series has collected approximately $2.7 billion in worldwide box office revenue against a combined production budget of roughly $263 million, cementing its status as the highest-grossing horror property ever. The first Conjuring film alone earned $320 million on a $20 million budget, establishing the franchise's profitability almost immediately. Critical reception, however, has been uneven. The first two main-series entries drew generally positive reviews, with particular praise for the on-screen chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the Warren couple, and for James Wan's direction. The third main film received mixed assessments, with critics acknowledging the leads' performances while finding the overall execution weaker. Among the spin-offs, Annabelle: Creation earned the most favorable reception, while the original Annabelle and The Nun drew predominantly negative or mixed reviews. Despite the critical splits, the franchise's influence on popular culture and on the broader landscape of modern horror filmmaking has been widely acknowledged.

Shifting Hands and a Deliberate Genre Split

The Conjuring Universe has been shaped by a rotating cast of directors, each bringing a distinct sensibility. James Wan helmed the first two main-series films and has spoken about seeking fidelity to the real-life Warrens' experiences in those entries. Michael Chaves took the helm for the third and fourth main films as well as The Nun II. The spin-off track, meanwhile, cycled through different visionaries: John R. Leonetti, who had served as cinematographer on The Conjuring, directed the original Annabelle; David F. Sandberg brought his style to Annabelle: Creation; and writer Gary Dauberman made his directorial debut with Annabelle Comes Home, a film Wan compared to Night at the Museum in its premise of a haunted object activating other artifacts in the Warrens' collection. Wan has explained that while the main films aimed for grounded realism, the spin-offs were deliberately designed to let the team explore different sub-genres within horror, giving each offshoot room to experiment with tone and structure beyond the constraints of the Warrens' case-file approach.