“The Conjuring 2” should cast a powerful enough spell to ward off “sequelitis,” the phantom plague that is infecting Hollywood’s biggest franchises this summer. The horror film is eyeing a debut of more than $35 million, which should be enough to keep the weekend’s other newcomers, “Warcraft” and “Now You See Me 2,” at bay. That’s below the first film’s $41 million opening, but still represents a solid result for Warner Bros., the studio behind the $40 million New Line production.

“The Conjuring 2” reunites director James Wan with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, who return as a husband and wife team of paranormal investigators. This time the duo travel across the pond to get the skinny on a haunted house just north of London. The time zone has changed, but the 1970s backdrop and Farmiga and Wilson’s disco-ready clothing remain. New Line will debut the film in 3,343 locations.

There’s something far scarier than whatever is keeping real estate prices low in the English countryside. Studio executives’ collective blood pressure is rising as one major film series after another falters or falls flat. In relatively short order, pricey follow-ups such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” have all stumbled or flopped at the box office. That’s bad news for an industry that has grown reliant on tentpole franchises to hold up their film slates, and its left some analysts and industry folk questioning whether or not the movie business is returning to the well too many times, leaving consumers hungry for originality.