The Curse Of La Llorona: The Box Office Hit The Conjuring Universe Didn't Want
(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)
"You can't count it!" That's what producer Peter Safran said to Entertainment Weekly in 2023 about "The Curse of La Llorona" being part of The Conjuring Universe. Safran, who has helped to spearhead the very successful horror franchise alongside James Wan since 2013, did not leave any room for interpretation there. Yet, director Michael Chaves' successful 2019 feature directorial debut contains characters from "Conjuring" films, as well as overt references to events in those stories. Be that as it may, this movie now exists as both an unquestionable hit and a film that narratively exists in The Conjuring Universe but, for technical reasons, actually doesn't.
In the era of cinematic universes, it's an almost unprecedented situation. Why provide connective tissue if the plan isn't to connect these dots? Why bother confusing audience members? Why not lump a hit movie in with a bunch of other hit movies? It flies in the face of conventional Hollywood wisdom when it comes to building out a universe. Safran has his reasons, and Warner Bros. has its reasons. Even so, this now exists as an oddball case in this specific franchise-obsessed era of the movie business.
In this week's Tales from the Box Office, in honor of the hit horror flick's fifth anniversary, we're looking back at the curious case of "The Curse of La Llorona." We'll go over how the movie came to be, where this "Conjuring" confusion began, what happened when it hit theaters, why it can't officially be considered part of the hit franchise it is often lumped in with, and what lessons we can learn from it several years later. Let's dig in, shall we?
The movie: The Curse of La Llorona
By 2019, The Conjuring Universe had established itself as a true powerhouse in entertainment. Beginning with James Wan's "The Conjuring" making $319 million worldwide in 2013, the franchise released four further films — "Annabelle," "The Conjuring 2," "Annabelle: Creation," and "The Nun" — through 2018. Those films collectively grossed more than $1.5 billion worldwide against combined budgets totaling just over $100 million. Put simply, this was a wildly successful brand and arguably the most successful cinematic universe outside of Marvel.
So when it was announced that Wan was on board to produce a movie originally titled "The Children" from first-time feature director Michael Chaves in 2017, it seemed early on like we might be looking at the next chapter in this ever-expanding horror universe. With Linda Cardellini ("Scooby-Doo") leading the cast, the title was eventually changed to "The Curse of La Llorona" to lean into the Latin American folklore the film is based upon.
The film takes place in 1970s Los Angeles, with La Llorona stalking children in the city. A social worker (Cardellini) and her small kids are drawn into a supernatural realm after ignoring the warnings of a troubled mother. Their only hope lies with a disillusioned priest. The cast also includes Raymond Cruz ("Breaking Bad"), Patricia Velasquez ("The Mummy"), and Tony Amendola ("Annabelle"). His casting is particularly important, but we'll get to that in a moment.
Gary Dauberman, who wrote several "Conjuring" installments and directed "Annabelle Comes Home," was also on board as a producer, providing more connective tissue to that universe. Rather crucially, though, Peter Safran was not included as a producer. The supposed answer to why he wasn't part of the team? We'll get to that later, but it's of paramount importance to the larger meta-narrative here.
The confusing connection to The Conjuring Universe
Despite this being his first feature, Chaves rose to the task of directing a big studio horror movie and delivered one that the studio felt quite confident in. They also proudly boasted on the posters that it hailed from "the producers of The Conjuring Universe." So from the jump, it wasn't hard to see why audiences might lump this in with films like "The Nun."
The movie itself sees Amendola playing Father Perez, a character he previously played in "Annabelle." That provides very direct connective tissue to the larger universe. Perez is also seen carrying the Annabelle doll in a brief scene which, again, signaled to audiences that this movie is part of the larger universe. Chaves even revealed to Gamespot in April 2019 that a deleted scene would have featured an overt connection to Ed and Lorraine Warren, the husband and wife at the center of "The Conjuring" films.
"There is actually a scene that was going to be at the end of the movie where at the very end of the film we shot Linda's character [Anna], who hands over the necklace to Raymond [who plays Rafael the curandero], you know, for safekeeping. And Raymond says that he knows someone who can keep it safe and that they're on the East Coast and they handle this sort of thing."
Warner Bros. rolled out the red carpet for "The Curse of La Llorona," premiering the film at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas in March 2019, more than a month before it was scheduled to hit theaters. At the festival, the filmmakers didn't do much to squash any potential confusion. Speaking with Syfy Wire, Wan wasn't exactly direct when addressing this film's connection to The Conjuring Universe:
"For me, it's about creating a world and characters that people like. And so, within that world, I always feel like two hours isn't enough to tell all the stories I want to tell in that world. When I'm fortunate enough that a film works, I'll let the financiers know that there's other stories I'd like to tell."
The financial journey
Any confusion aside, Chaves' debut had a lot going for it. The film cost just $9 million, making it the second-cheapest entry in the franchise to date behind the first "Annabelle" ($6.5 million). That was also key here as "The Conjuring" was relatively expensive for a horror film at $20 million. But horror is often appealing because it's cheap and the bar for profit is lower as a result. Hence, it didn't matter as much that the film was not met with kind reviews ahead of its release. /Film's review of "The Curse of La Llorona" out of SXSW was particularly unkind, saying that it "never manages to tell a logical story in a compelling way."
Be that as it may, WB released the movie in theaters on April 19, 2019, which happened to be Easter weekend. It easily topped the charts, pulling in $26.3 million domestically. Critics be damned — this was a hit right out of the gate. The only other major new release that weekend was Fox's "Breakthrough," which pulled in $14.7 million, placing third behind "Shazam!" ($16.4 million), which was in its third weekend. "La Llorona" had to surrender the crown quickly as "Avengers: Endgame" opened the following weekend to a record $1.2 billion globally. But it hardly mattered for a movie that cost so little to make.
The film ended its run with $54.7 million domestically to go with an even better $68.5 million internationally for a grand total of $123.2 million worldwide. If one were to count it in The Conjuring Universe (for what it's worth, it's part of /Film's ranking of the franchise), "La Llorona" would rank as the lowest-grossing entry in the series by a considerable margin. 2021's "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" ($200.2 million) is next, so it's not even close. Even so, we're talking about a movie that made nearly 14 times its production budget in ticket sales. That's a home run no matter how you look at it.
The Conjuring Universe disowns La Llorona after it hits theaters
Like "Annabelle" before it, near-disastrous word from critics couldn't dissuade audiences. There's almost no question that the (albeit vague) connections to The Conjuring Universe brought additional hype that might not have otherwise been present. Quite a few reviews at the time even loudly proclaimed that it was part of the larger "Conjuring" franchise. If Warner Bros. had wanted to, they could have easily said, "It's not." But where's the commercial advantage in that? Speaking with EW in 2023, Chaves finally cleared things up:
"There's so much debate about it and I think I've played coy in the past. The idea was that [the Annabelle cameo] was going to be this little hidden thing that you were going to discover as you watch the movie. One of the reasons that it couldn't formally be a part of the Conjuring universe is it didn't include one of the key producers, which is Peter Safran."
Chaves further stated that Safran wasn't included "because it was such a small low-budget movie." Be that as it may, the man who is now the co-head of DC Studios permitted Chaves to include the Annabelle cameo. "Peter still gave his permission to let the character be in there. The funny thing is that it was supposed to be a secret, it was supposed to be this Easter Egg, and [when the film premiered at] SXSW, there was a slip-up. The presenter introduced the movie as the next entry in the Conjuring universe."
It would seem unfair to pin it all on that "slip up" at SXSW as there is much more at play here. Speaking on the matter himself, Safran said in no uncertain terms in that same article that this film is not part of the franchise:
"It periodically gets lumped in because of Chaves and because of Atomic Monster, but it is not officially part of the universe. By the way, I think Chaves did a great job on the movie, which is why we stole him for The Conjuring Universe."
The lessons contained within
Indeed, Wan and Safran selected Chaves to direct "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It," as well as last year's "The Nun II." Both films were very successful, which is why Chaves is also going to direct "The Conjuring 4." That only further adds to the odd nature of this whole thing, as everything Chaves has done since has been part of the franchise in question. Yet, his successful feature debut which includes references to "The Conjuring" films that are impossible to ignore is officially excluded from this universe. It's a peculiar situation, to put it lightly.
Looking back, I'm left with more questions than answers. Safran is a big-name producer and yeah, he commands a certain fee for producing a film. Warner Bros. probably wanted to keep the budget down on "La Llorona." That said, "Annabelle" was even cheaper to make, yet he and Wan were both producers on that. It too was met with terrible reviews, but it gets to be a part of The Conjuring Universe. Chaves probably has no misgivings, as this movie launched his now very successful career. From my perspective, it's audiences that should maybe raise an eyebrow in reflection.
This movie has an abysmal 28% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to go with a comparably awful 35% audience rating. Attaching it loosely to a wildly popular series of horror movies is one way to drum up interest for a movie that perhaps wasn't going to get a lot of positive word-of-mouth buzz. It's impossible to quantify, but that "Conjuring" connection made a difference. I would further go so far as to say if this movie had been a critical success that had made closer to $200 million worldwide, we'd have a sequel that was firmly touted as part of the franchise.
Excluding "The Curse of La Llorona" from The Conjuring Universe is, at best, needlessly confusing. At worst, it's actively deceptive. I'm not here to say which side of the line it falls on, but it stands out like a sore thumb five years removed.