The first part of what will be a two-part adaptation of King’s horror masterwork concentrates on the episode from the 1980s in which Pennywise the dancing clown terrorizes a group of teen misfits. It bested the second place film by almost $110 million, the fifth largest gap between #1 and #2 in history, and the new Pennywise saga totally destroyed both the September record for debuts (Hotel Transylvania $48.2 million) and the combined September/October “Fall” record of $55 million (Gravity). IT also managed the largest opening ever for an R-rated horror film, besting 2001’s Hannibal ($58 million, $91 million adjusted). Muschietti’s film also set other records for R-rated horror films including the biggest Thursday night preview ($13.5 million) and the biggest single day (Friday $51 million). It is already the highest-grossing Stephen King horror adaptation, and it will almost certainly surpass The Green Mile ($136 million, $232 million adjusted) to become the biggest King-based movie of all time.
It set a bunch of other records, perhaps the most interesting of which is, “the cheapest movie to debut with over $100 million.” It cost just $35 million to produce, considerably less than the previous record holder The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which had a production cost of $50 million.
It attracted an audience that was more evenly split between the genders than the typical horror film with females making up just 51% of the debut weekend audience, which skewed older (65% over 25), but also included 10% that was under 18. The youngsters gave the film an A- CinemaScore, while the overall audience grade was slightly less generous (B+), though that’s still pretty high for a horror film--and the movie’s critical rating of 87% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes should help It maintain some box office presence over the next few weeks at least.
Overseas It earned $62 million for a global debut of $179 million. The new Pennywise saga scored the best opening ever for a horror film in the U.K., Russia, Australia, Netherlands and Poland.
In second place was the Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy Home Again, which debuted with a ho-hum $9 million, as audiences gave the film a middling “B” CinemaScore. Home Again is on track for a domestic showing like that of Bridget Jones’s Baby, which debuted with $8.6 million last year and ended up with $24.3 million in North America.
Third place went to the Samuel L. Jackson/Ryan Reynolds action comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which dropped 54% in its fourth weekend as it added $4.9 million to bring its domestic total to $64.9 million. Clearly The Hitman’s Bodyguard is on its way to becoming one of Jackson’s biggest grossing films (as a principal actor), though it is unlikely to cross the $100 million mark.
|
Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): September 8-10, 2017 |
||||||
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
|
1 |
It |
$117,150,000 |
4,103 |
$28,552 |
$117,150,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
Home Again |
$9,028,222 |
2,940 |
$3,071 |
$9,028,222 |
1 |
|
3 |
The Hitman's Bodyguard |
$4,850,000 |
3,322 |
$1,460 |
$64,897,007 |
4 |
|
4 |
Annabelle: Creation |
$4,000,000 |
3,003 |
$1,332 |
$96,267,010 |
5 |
|
5 |
Wind River |
$3,210,200 |
2,890 |
$1,111 |
$25,002,192 |
6 |
|
6 |
Leap! |
$2,500,100 |
2,691 |
$929 |
$15,874,536 |
3 |
|
7 |
Spider-Man: Homecoming |
$2,015,000 |
1,657 |
$1,216 |
$327,702,794 |
10 |
|
8 |
Dunkirk |
$1,950,000 |
2,110 |
$924 |
$183,110,279 |
8 |
|
9 |
Logan Lucky |
$1,826,425 |
2,167 |
$843 |
$25,228,666 |
4 |
|
10 |
The Emoji Movie |
$1,060,000 |
1,450 |
$731 |
$82,516,858 |
7 |
In fact the only August release that will top the century mark this year is Warner Bros.’ horror prequel Annabelle: Creation, which earned another $4 million to bring its total to $96.3 million.
Fifth place went to Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River, which dropped 48.5% in its sixth weekend as it earned $3.2 million to bring its total to $25 million. This gritty crime thriller set on a Wyoming reservation now looks like it will out earn last year’s Hell and High Water ($27 million), which Sheridan wrote.
The leggiest film in the top 10 is Marvel Studio’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, which earned $2 million to bring its North American total to $327.7 million. Homecoming also opened in China where it earned $70 million to bring the film’s worldwide total to $823 million, putting it in front of Wonder Woman ($816.3 million) globally, though Wonder Woman easily bested Homecoming here in North America by $82 million.
In limited release (400 theaters) the Charlie Sheen-starring 9/11 bombed, earning just $406 per location. Audiences evidently didn’t want to spend 90 minutes trapped in an elevator with Sheen and Whoopi Goldberg during the attack on the World Trade Center, and the post-film nod to the heroics of “first responders” didn’t do much to deter charges that the whole project was “exploitative,” and “offensive.”
Be sure and check back here next week to see if Hollywood’s win streak will continue with the debut of Darren Aronofsky’s well-reviewed thriller Mother! in 2,500 theaters and Lionsgate’s gun crazy American Assassin in over 3000.
