IT rules the box office and shatters records

Well, IT has happened. IT, the new adaptation of the incredibly popular Stephen King epic novel, is a bona fide box office phenomenon, breaking box office record after record. The story of a small town in Maine (where else?), whose children are besieged by an evil shape-shifting presence that generally manifests itself in the form of a clown named Pennywise, is terrorizing audiences in America and throughout the world. The numbers are truly astounding, the likes of which we haven’t seen at this time of the year. Indeed, Halloween has come early at the multiplex.

To begin with, for its opening weekend in North America, IT grossed an incredible $123 million. That’s a number generally reserved for summer blockbusters or major Christmas releases. In fact, it’s the third biggest opening weekend of the year, behind only Disney’s behemoth, Beauty and the Beast from March ($174M) and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 ($146M), opening at the start of May, now considered the beginning of the summer box office season. That means that IT beat out Spider-Man: Homecoming, Wonder Woman and The Fate of the Furious. IT’s $123M breaks a number of records – biggest fall opening, besting the $58.5M from Gravity (2013), largest September opening, beating the $48.5M from 2015’s Hotel Transylvania 2, and highest opening weekend for an R-rated horror film, which was previously held by 2011’s Paranormal Activity 3 with $52.5M. IT pretty much obliterated all three of those records. In addition, it’s the 2nd best opening for any R-rated film, behind last year’s Deadpool (which actually said it was a horror movie itself during the movie), when it opened with an incredible $132.4M during February.

IT really sets a new benchmark for horror films. Recent successful horror releases have seen excellent numbers from The Conjuring (2013), with $137.4M, The Blair Witch Project (1999), with $140.5M and this year’s Get Out, with $175.4M. Now, those were TOTALS. IT has already amassed $143.6M in only 5 days! It won’t be long before it catches the all-time classics like The Exorcist‘s $232.9M and Jaws‘ $260M. In addition, IT saw an estimated $62M from overseas markets, with the UK ($13.2M), Russia ($7.2M) and Australia ($6M) leading the way, bringing its worldwide total through the weekend up to $185M with plenty more to come. How much more? Stay tuned!