The Conjuring Universe

• 1. Introduction

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  The Conjuring Universe began with a recording of a recording. Ed Warren played producer Tony DeRosa-Grund a tape of his wife Lorraine interviewing a woman named Carolyn Perron. DeRosa-Grund taped the playback and the conversation that followed. Near the end, Warren told him: "If we can't make this into a film I don't know what we can".

  That tape set in motion more than twenty years of effort. The result is an American horror franchise and shared universe, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Its films dramatize the supposedly real-life adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators and authors tied to famous and disputed hauntings. The franchise has grossed $2.7 billion against a combined budget of $263 million, which makes it the highest-grossing horror franchise to date.

  Critics have been far more divided than ticket buyers. The story raises some odd questions. Why did a pitch with such a confident endorsement sit unsold for so long? How did a haunted doll and a demonic nun grow into films of their own? And why did people connected to the franchise end up fighting each other in court?

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• 2. The Long Pitch

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  For nearly 14 years, Tony DeRosa-Grund tried and failed to get The Conjuring made. He wrote the original treatment himself and gave it that title. His closest early call came at Gold Circle Films, the company behind The Haunting in Connecticut. A deal was reached, but the contract could never be finalized, and it was dropped.

  Producer Peter Safran then allied with DeRosa-Grund, and the sibling writers Chad and Carey W. Hayes were hired to refine the script. Working from the treatment and the Ed Warren tape, the Hayes brothers moved the story's point of view away from the Perron family and onto the Warrens. They also phoned Lorraine many times to clarify details.

  By mid-2009 the property set off a bidding war among six studios. Summit Entertainment came out on top, but DeRosa-Grund and Summit could not close the transaction, and the film went into turnaround. New Line Cinema had lost that original bidding. It came back to the project and ultimately picked it up. On the 11th of November that year, New Line made a deal with DeRosa-Grund's company, Evergreen Media Group.

  DeRosa-Grund's name would return years later in a very different kind of dispute with Warner Bros.

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• 3. The Warren Cases

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  The Conjuring opened on the 19th of July 2013, with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine. James Wan directed. The story is set in 1971. It follows the Warrens as they look into a witch's curse at a farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, where the Perron family had just moved in.

  The Conjuring 2 arrived on the 10th of June 2016, again directed by Wan. It turned to the Enfield poltergeist case in London in 1977, a controversial episode in the Warrens' careers. The film also briefly refers to the events that inspired The Amityville Horror. Wan has said the team sought accuracy to real life in the main films.

  After the second film, Wan said scheduling conflicts would keep him from directing another. He still hoped other filmmakers would take on the series. He said the next story would be set in the 1980s. He also mentioned ideas about lycanthropy, citing An American Werewolf in London and The Hound of the Baskervilles as inspiration. Safran added that it would not be a haunted house movie.

  Michael Chaves directed The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, with Wan producing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing. The plot centers on the 1981 murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson in Connecticut. The defendant claimed he had been possessed during the crimes he was accused of.

  The film was first scheduled for the 11th of September 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed it to the 4th of June 2021. The United Kingdom saw it first, on the 26th of May 2021. In the United States it also streamed on HBO Max for a month alongside its theatrical run.

  A fourth main film was revealed in October 2022 as a sequel to that trial story. In September 2023, Chaves said it was meant to be seen as a "finale". Filming had started by the 17th of September 2024. Many took it for the last Warren-centered film, but it was later clarified as the end of the franchise's first phase. The Conjuring: Last Rites reached theaters on the 5th of September 2025, with Wilson and Farmiga returning.

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• 4. Dolls and Demon Nuns

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  The Annabelle doll appears at the start of the first film, and its popularity with audiences prompted a spin-off announced soon after the original opened. Annabelle reached theaters on the 3rd of October 2014. John and Mia Form are expecting a child when two devil worshippers break into their home and are killed. Their vintage doll is left possessed by a vengeful spirit. John R. Leonetti, cinematographer of The Conjuring, directed from a script by Gary Dauberman.

  Annabelle: Creation, released on the 11th of August 2017, went further back. It follows a dollmaker and his wife, whose daughter died twelve years earlier. They open their home to a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage. David F. Sandberg, the director of Lights Out, replaced Leonetti, while Dauberman returned to write.

  In 2019, Dauberman made his directorial debut with Annabelle Comes Home, released on the 26th of June. It takes place after the first Annabelle film and The Conjuring, once the doll sits in a glass box in the Warrens' museum. Mckenna Grace plays their daughter Judy, and Madison Iseman plays her teenage babysitter. Wan likened the premise to Night at the Museum, with Annabelle waking the haunted objects in the Warrens' artifact room.

  Valak, the demonic nun first glimpsed in The Conjuring 2, got her own film in The Nun, released on the 7th of September 2018. Corin Hardy directed. Demián Bichir and Taissa Farmiga play a priest and a novitiate who investigate an unholy secret. Bonnie Aarons returned as Valak. David Leslie Johnson was first announced as writer before Dauberman and Wan took over.

  Wan explained the logic of the split. The main films aim for accuracy to real life, while the spin-offs let the team, in his words, "just explore different sub-genres in the horror genre".

  The Nun II came out on the 8th of September 2023, directed by Chaves, with Storm Reid joining the cast. Before the first Nun was even released, Wan said he knew where a sequel could lead and how it might tie back to Lorraine's story, to "make it all come full circle".

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• 5. Box Office and Reviews

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  The Conjuring earned $320 million worldwide on a $20 million budget, which made it one of the most profitable horror films in history. Annabelle did even better in relative terms. It made 40 times its $6.5 million budget. According to Deadline, the first film and its sequel together earned a combined profit of $260 million.

  The Conjuring 2 took in $320.3 million from a $40 million budget. For a time it ranked as the second highest-grossing horror film ever, behind only The Exorcist, until It was released in 2017.

  Scott Mendelson of Forbes called the franchise the "first successful post-Marvel cinematic universe". The Hollywood Reporter wrote in 2022 that, besides the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an argument could be made for the Conjuring films as the second most successful cinematic universe of the moment.

  Reviews followed a bumpier path. The first two Conjuring films drew generally positive notices, with praise for Wan's directing and for the chemistry between Wilson and Farmiga. Critics also acknowledged the films' effect on popular culture and on how modern horror gets made. The Devil Made Me Do It received mixed reviews. Critics liked its two leads but found it weaker than its predecessors.

  The spin-offs varied widely. The first Annabelle drew mixed to negative reviews and was seen as inferior to The Conjuring. Annabelle: Creation was generally well received. Annabelle Comes Home and The Nun II landed in the middle with mixed reviews.

  The Nun received generally negative reviews, yet it grossed $365.6 million on a $22 million budget. Last Rites later took in roughly $499 million against a $55 million budget.

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• 6. Beyond the Films

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  In July 2013, before The Conjuring opened, Vice Media joined Warner Bros. Entertainment and New Line Cinema to present The 3:07 A.M. Project. It was an anthology of horror short films. The only thread connecting them was the witching hour of 3:07 A.M., a time the first film itself references. The shorts worked as marketing, drew mixed reactions, and count as the franchise's first attempt at expansion. Their filmmakers later found success in other horror franchises.

  In April 2021, DC Comics formed a horror imprint called DC Horror. The first comic set in this universe, The Conjuring: The Lover, appeared on the 1st of June 2021. The five-issue limited series is a prequel to The Devil Made Me Do It. It follows a college student named Jessica, who struggles with campus life and discovers that something sinister is targeting her. David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Rex Ogle co-wrote it, Garry Brown drew it, and Bill Sienkiewicz painted the covers.

  Every issue also carries a backup story about a cursed object from the Warrens' basement museum. Scott Snyder wrote The Ferryman, with art by Denys Cowan. Che Grayson and Juan Ferreyra made The Bloody Bride. Tim Seeley and Kelley Jones took The Accordion Monkey, and Ray Fawkes and Christopher Mitten did The Sleeping Song. Dominike "Domo" Stanton wrote and drew The Chalice. A hardcover collection followed in March 2022.

  Two films sit just outside the official count. Wolves at the Door, announced in May 2015 with John R. Leonetti directing, stars Eric Ladin as Detective Clarkin, repeating his role from Annabelle. It is loosely based on the Manson Family murders of 1969. The Curse of La Llorona, directed by Chaves, features Tony Amendola as Father Perez, also carried over from Annabelle. His character ties the haunting to the demon attached to the doll, and Annabelle appears on screen. A sequel, The Revenge of La Llorona, directed by Santiago Menghini, is scheduled for the 9th of April 2027.

  In May 2021, Safran said some stories would suit eight episodes better than a two-hour film. HBO Max gave Warner Bros. a place to release such a series. An untitled show was announced in April 2023, set after the events of the films. In September 2025, Nancy Won was reported as writer, executive producer and showrunner, with Peter Cameron and Cameron Squires also writing.

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• 7. Unmade and Upcoming

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  In May 2017, Safran said the studio was considering the Crooked Man from The Conjuring 2 for a feature film. By June, The Crooked Man was officially in development, with Mike Van Waes as screenwriter, from a story by Wan. Wan described its style as a "dark fairytale". Safran said the film was meant to follow The Conjuring 2 but was delayed so The Nun could be rushed into production, because audiences responded so strongly to Valak. In November 2022, Wan announced it was not moving forward for now, and in May 2025 he said he still hoped to make it.

  Michael Chaves revealed in June 2021 that The Devil Made Me Do It was originally meant to tie directly into the next spin-off. That film would have centered on a character known as the Lost Demon, an entity based entirely on descriptions from true accounts by witnesses. Its full reveal and a subplot about an occultist named Isla working with the demon were cut. Chaves noted it is the same entity that torments David in the waterbed and enters his body.

  Gary Dauberman, after Annabelle Comes Home, said he had written detailed backstories for several entities while working on that film. He and Wan discussed taking the franchise into other sub-genres, with a psychological horror film about The Bride and a slasher about The Samurai as examples.

  In August 2023, Chaves suggested more Nun projects set between the 1950s and the 1960s. He also said he would love to see a story in which demons from every installment torment the Warrens. By April 2025, the president of New Line Cinema announced at CinemaCon that a second phase of films was in active development. Wan added that future movies might draw on the real-life experiences of Judy Warren as a paranormal investigator, and Mia Tomlinson said she was interested in returning as Judy.

  Safran has said the studio would make only films directly connected to the Warrens and the existing movies. About keeping Wilson and Farmiga, he said: "Ed and Lorraine investigated cases for 50 years, so we have another 40 years with Patrick and Vera before we run out". Wilson noted: "We're in our 50s, and Lorraine lived into her 90s while Ed was in his 70s, so we're still around."

  In September 2025, a prequel was announced following the financial success of Last Rites. Rodrigue Huart entered early talks to direct, with a script by Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg, and younger actors expected to play Ed and Lorraine. Madison Lawlor and Orion Smith had voiced interest in the roles that August. In January 2026 it was titled The Conjuring: First Communion, with a release date of the 10th of September 2027.

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• 8. Courtroom Battles

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  In 2015, Norma Sutcliffe and Gerald Helfrich, former owners of the house that inspired The Conjuring, sued Wan, Warner Bros. and other producers. They said their property was being constantly vandalized because of the film. Entertainment Weekly obtained documents in which they described break-ins and the discovery of many objects linked to satanic cults. The papers also state that they bought the house in 1987 and lived "in peace" until 2013. They sought unspecified damages, and a Warner Bros. spokesperson declined to comment.

  On the 29th of March 2017, Gerald Brittle, author of a book on the Warrens called The Demonologist, filed a $900 million lawsuit against Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Wan and others. He claimed exclusive rights to the Warrens' story and said the studios and producers had stolen it. Trial was scheduled for the 16th of April 2018. A Warner Bros. spokesperson said the court had significantly narrowed the case and called Brittle's claims without merit.

  On the 13th of December 2017, Warner Bros. settled the suit and revealed who it believed was behind it. The studio named Tony DeRosa-Grund, the original film's producer, as the "mastermind". Brittle himself said DeRosa-Grund had controlled the litigation from the start. He also said text messages showed that DeRosa-Grund threatened Brittle's attorneys with being fired if they sent his information without DeRosa-Grund seeing it first.

  The case followed repeated failed lawsuits by DeRosa-Grund against Warner Bros., in which he claimed the studio owed him millions of dollars from the franchise. He eventually settled, agreeing never to sue Warner Bros. again over anything related to it.

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