All of this hype for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’sITis about topay off in a big way. The movie is set to arrive in theaters on September 8 and it looks like it is going to scare up some huge money at the box office. It was always expected thatITwould do well, but now it appears that the movie is going to set a new September box office record, as theITmovie is looking at an opening weekend of $50 million or more.
According toDeadline,ITis currently tracking for an opening weekend between $50-$60 million. The studio is trying to manage expectations and is saying that they are expecting an opening of $40 million or so, but that could be intentionally modest. IfITeven arrives on the low end of the current box office tracking, it will be the new September record holder for the biggest opening weekend. Currently, the record belongs toHotel Transylvania 2, which made $48.5 million on its first weekend back in 2015.
As far as live-action movies go,Insidious: Chapter 2currently holds the September opening weekend record with $40.3 million at the box office.ITwill easily best that. Part of what is going to helpIT, beyond the fact that the studio has been providing us with an absolutely terrific marketing campaign, is that thehighly-anticipated horror flickwill have virtually no competition on that weekend. Here’s what a distributor had to say aboutIT’s chances of scoring a major opening weekend.
“It’s not competing against anything on tracking. That’s why those figures are so high. Anyone can easily make a mistake and predict a $100M-plus opening, but you have to take into account the softer fall marketplace.”
When some of the very first images ofBill Skarsgard as Pennywisearrived online, there was some hesitation on the part of many fans, as it was a bit difficult for them to picture how this particular take on thechild-eating clownwas going to be scary. However, when Warner Bros. released thefirst IT trailerin March, it delivered in a big way and wound up scoring more than 200 million views in its first 24 hours of release. That absolutely shattered the previous record holder. That indicates that there is a huge appetite for this movie. And that is a very good thing!
WithITset to arrive in theaters in just a few weeks, we should be getting some of the first critical reactions to the movie very soon. That could be huge when it comes to just how much moneyITcould potentially earn. If the reviews are mostly positive, we could see Pennywise blow away expectations. As we’ve seen, box office tracking can be a bit unreliable, good or bad, in recent years.ITwill have its R rating to contend with, but as we’ve seen in recent years with movies likeDeadpoolandLogan, that isn’t necessarily a problem. This is definitely good news for those who want to seeIT 2happen as soon as possible.
