Clown Town
Hey, box office records, Pennywise has a message for you:
So there are a lot of disturbed dreams across America this week. Â The newest movie version of Stephen King’s classic horror novel has annihilated existing records for $$$$$. Quite the phenomenon.
The Guardian has some deets;
It shattered US box-office records over the weekend, earning $117.2m from 4,103 locations, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Not only is It now the largest ever opening for a horror movie and the largest September opening of all time, the film more than doubled the earnings of the previous record holders. Before this weekend, Paranormal Activity 3 had the biggest horror opening with $52.6m from 2011, and the highest September debut was Hotel Transylvania 2âs $48.5m in 2015.
The studio, as you might imagine, is over the moon. Hell, they’re still pumping the movie’s tires, they ain’t satisfied with where they’re at.
âWe blew past everyoneâs most optimistic and aggressive projections and I think there might be room for us to grow this weekend even still,â said Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros, the studio behind the film.
We’re In The Money
Goldstein said he was conservative with Sunday projections due to the confounding factors of the filmâs R-rating, the popularity of late-night showings, the beginning of the American football season and Hurricane Irma. Itâs high totals are more astounding, considering that the film, directed by Andy Muschietti, cost only $35m to produce.
The filmâs success was helped by a lack of other new releases over the weekend, save for the Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy Home Again, which came in a very distant second with $9m. The success of It also comes after an underperforming summer moviegoing season that left the year to date box office down 6.5% from last year, and prompted talk of an industry in crisis.
BUT WAIT!
Now, with It factored in, the year is down only 5.5%.
There has been a lot written about the demise of the box office. This seems to come up every few years and itâs all content driven. If there are good movies out there, the public will embrace them and be excited to see them. If we come up with movies they are not interested in, they stay away,â Goldstein said. âThis is a movie they wanted to see.â
Thank goodness! A homicidal clown has saved Hollywood!