It is a force to be reckoned with at the international box office.
Five days after its theatrical release, New Line’s R-rated reboot has chewed through yet another record: the biggest Tuesday ever seen in the month of September. As reported by Deadline, It comfortably surpassed Sully ($4.8m) and The Conjuring ($5.6m) with yesterday’s haul of $11.4 million, bringing the movie’s total cume to around $198 million. A $200m target is within an arm’s reach, then, and we fully expect the Andy Muschietti horror vehicle to blow past said milestone this coming weekend.
To put that Tuesday figure into perspective, a $11.4 million total ranks among some of the biggest blockbusters of the modern era. When narrowing the focus down to that corridor between Labor Day and December, the likes of Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($15.96M) and Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 ($12.1M) fall into a similar bracket, which only makes It‘s triumph all the more impressive. And by the looks of things, Pennywise will be perched at the tip-top of those box office charts for weeks to come – much to the dismay of Darren Aronofsky’s mother!
Exactly how high It can climb (float?) will be told in time, but make no mistake, New Line’s R-rated gamble has paid off dividends. Plans are already in place for Chapter 2, which will circle back to the cursed town of Derry, Maine 27 years after the fact. It’s still early days, of course, given the studio has tentatively earmarked 2019 as a potential release window, but Andy Muschietti has confirmed ’80s flashbacks for the horror sequel, along with a much darker storyline for the adult Mike Hanlon.
And if the Losers Club have their way, it’ll be Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman who will be playing adult Mike in two years’ time. It’s wishful thinking, of course, but New Line’s confidence in the sequel is telling. More from the studio’s two-part It saga when we have it.
