'It: Chapter Two' Looks To Float To A $120 Million Opening Weekend At The Box Office
Back in 2017, New Line Cinema's adaptation of Stephen King's classic novel It surprised everyone by opening with a massive $123.4 million, and it rode that wave to a $327.4 million domestic total, and a $700.3 million global total. That was enough to make it the highest grossing horror film of all time, not to mention having the biggest opening weekend ever for September and the entire fall season. If all goes well, it sounds like the It: Chapter Two box office totals will be right on par with the first. Check out the early predictions below.
Deadline has word from box office analysts that It: Chapter Two is currently in line to bring in a $120 million+ opening weekend, and there's a chance it could very well outperform the original's opening weekend numbers with all the hype surrounding the horror sequel. However, there are some outlets that have the movie opening as low as $95 million, which wouldn't be surprising with a sequel, and it would still be the second best September opening of all time.
The first It brought in a much more varied assembly of demographics than your average horror movie. Men over 25 made up 31% of the audience and women over 25 made up 23%, and females under 25 made up 24% and males under 25 were 23%. (That adds up to 101%, so one of those numbers must have been rounded up, but you get the point.) Even the CinemaScore audience count found a near 50/50 split between men and women, which is pretty incredible.
This is one of those rare instances where you have a classic Stephen King novel that millions have read, not to mention a lot of people who probably grew up being terrified by the original TV movie adaptation of It. All of them were curious about how this take on Pennywise the Dancing Clown compared to the other adaptation, and that curiosity, as well as good word of mouth, resulted in the huge box office. It remains to be seen if the sequel will end up performing quite as successful, especially since there might be some who didn't like the first movie. Plus, if the buzz for the sequel isn't as good this time around, some audiences may hold off.
It's interesting to see the weekend after Labor Day become a sweet spot for horror in the past few years, and specifically involving movies from Warner Bros. Pictures, too. They've haunted September with the original It in 2017, last year's The Conjuring spin-off The Nun, and now this year's It sequel. Next year it will fall on The Conjuring 3 to bring in the scares. How long can Warner Bros. keep the post-Labor Day weekend full of horror?
It: Chapter Two arrives in theaters on September 6, 2019.