Box office Insidious: Chapter 3 grossed $52.2 million in North America and $60.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $112.8 million, against a budget of $10 million. In North America, the film made $1.6 million from its early Thursday night showings, from 2,150 theaters, and $10.4 million on its opening day, from 3,003 theaters. It finished at third place in its opening weekend, earning $23 million behind fellow opener
Spy and holdover
San Andreas. Outside North America,
Insidious: Chapter 3 grossed $14.3 million in its opening weekend, from 42 countries on 2,989 screens, also finishing in third place behind
San Andreas and
Spy. It had the biggest opening for a horror film in the Philippines ($1.5 million) and in Vietnam ($620,000), the second-biggest in Malaysia ($1.6 million), and had similarly successful openings in Russia and the CIS ($2.7 million).
Critical reception The
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes lists a 56% approval rating based on 126 reviews and a
rating average of 5.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "
Insidious: Chapter 3 isn't as terrifying as the original, although it boasts surprising thematic depth and is enlivened by another fine performance from Lin Shaye." On
Metacritic the film has a score of 52 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. In
CinemaScore polls, cinema audiences gave the film an average score of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Scott Foundas of
Variety gave the film a negative review, saying "Chief among things that go bump in the night in
Insidious: Chapter 3 is the movie itself—a thuddingly dull prequel to James Wan's very enjoyable (and highly profitable) demonic-possession horror franchise." Justin Lowe of
The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, saying "
Insidious: Chapter 3 offers a relatable young protagonist and several key supporting players from the prior films in a nimble setup to the series." Kyle Anderson of
Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+, saying "
Insidious Chapter 3 is the worst kind of sequel: Not terrible, but also cartoonishly unnecessary." Michael Ordoña of the
San Francisco Chronicle rated it zero out of four stars, saying "
Insidious: Chapter 3 is simply not scary. Not a bit, not a whit. Except that the audience will be terrified of the next stabbing of their eardrums, at generally predictable intervals." Michael O'Sullivan of
The Washington Post gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "The
Insidious franchise, after three attempts to exorcise its real demons, still can't seem to shake what really haunts it: the ghost of B-movies past." Peter Howell of the
Toronto Star gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "This prequel to the shriek hell, directed and scripted by series writer/actor Leigh Whannell, manages to avoid the Curse of the Triple Cash Grab." Kerry Lengel of
The Arizona Republic gave the film three out of five stars, saying "
Insidious: Chapter 3 is almost more a spoof of a classic like
The Exorcist than it is an homage. It's not scary horror, it's silly horror, and the audience is in on the joke." Stephen Whitty of the
Newark Star-Ledger gave the film two-and-a-half stars, saying "You need more than a few sudden noises and scary shocks to make a good horror movie. But
Insidious: Chapter Three is at least an OK horror movie."
James Berardinelli of
ReelViews gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, saying "They say the third time's the charm. Not with the
Insidious series, it isn't. Admittedly, installment #3 is an improvement over #2, but it fails to reach the highs of the chilling-but-uneven original." Tim Robey of
The Telegraph gave the film four out of five stars, saying "It manages the all-important jump scares with the finesse of a skilled stage illusionist, but it’s the surprisingly sincere emotional core that makes it the pick of the series." Katie Rife of
The A.V. Club gave the film a B−, saying "The motif of grief runs throughout
Insidious: Chapter 3, which is surprisingly thematically rich for the third installment of a horror franchise. This emotional undercurrent informs the fright scenes, which otherwise lean rather heavily on jump scares." Bilge Ebiri of
New York magazine gave the film a negative review, saying "This is so often the problem with this genre—scary setups, followed by dopey resolutions—that you sort of want to give the movie a pass. But given its distinguished forebears,
Insidious: Chapter 3 doesn’t quite live up to expectations."
Home media Insidious: Chapter 3 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 6, 2015. ==Sequel==