Weekend In Review: IT Shatters Records With $117M Opening
Usually this column targets a handful of weekend-centric happenings from across the entertainment industry, but this week we're gonna break that format to instead focus on what's surely the biggest story in Hollywood at the moment: the jaw-dropping success of Andy Muschietti's IT.
As of this writing, IT's projected to rake in $117M at the domestic box office (some estimates have it as high as $124M), a staggering amount of money which represents ... well, a number of broken records.
Says Deadline:
"Stephen King’s It has been gathering up the records like a handful of balloons: The best opening day ever for a horror title ($51M), the highest pre-show for a horror film ($13.5M), the highest three-day opening record weekend for the genre and the second-highest opening for an R-rated pic (behind Deadpool‘s $132.4M), the best September opening for any genre which means the best September opening to date for the studio, and likely more records coming as New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. sorts through all of their stats early this AM."
Whether IT ends up pulling in $117M or $124M, that figure is substantially higher than anyone predicted headed into the weekend, and cements the film's status as a no-shit pop-cultural phenomenon (Just for comparison's sake: this weekend's second-place earner, Home Again, is projected to have earned $8.6M).
Will the film float that high above the competition next week? September 15th brings Darren Aronofsky's Mother! and Michael Cuesta's American Assassin to theaters, and neither seem likely to knock Pennywise off his throne. If you're the type of film geek who treats box office returns like a spectator sport (it me), this is exciting stuff! We've got a few interesting weekends to look forward to.
Anyway, this is usually where I'd ask what you folks did with your weekend, but the answer seems obvious. Feel free to weigh in on IT (or, fine, anything else you did this weekend) in the space provided below.
