If you listen quietly, you can hear the sounds of champagne corks being popped in the movie business, and most specifically over at Warner Bros./New Line. After two of the worst weekends in decades, due mostly to studios not opening any movies worth a damn, at the end of a brutal summer, the box office came roaring back thanks to the triumphant opening of the studio’s Stephen King adaptation “It.”
It was clear, when the trailer debuted to record-breaking numbers earlier in the year, that the story of a demonic clown tormenting a group of children would strike a chord with audiences, but few suspected the movie would go this big — tracking numbers suggested something around the $60 million mark.
But great reviews (86% on the increasingly-important Rotten Tomatoes, which is stellar for a horror movie), strong word-of-mouth and the eternal appeal of scary clowns saw the movie go through the roof, with studio estimates pegging it at $117 million for the weekend (and some suggesting it could go as high as $125 million). That’s the second-highest R-rated opening ever, behind “Deadpool,” the best September opening of all time, and the third-biggest weekend number of the year, behind only “Beauty & The Beast” and “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2,” but ahead of movies like “The Fate Of The Furious,” “Wonder Woman” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
To put it in perspective, “It” took more this weekend than every movie on release took last weekend, and on its own took more than the post-Labor Day weekend cumulative record (this is normally a quiet weekend, proving that a blockbuster will act like a blockbuster whenever you release it). And that was even with box office wildly down in Houston and Florida due to the devastating hurricanes and their aftermath.
It’s a much-needed hit for the movie biz, one that’s likely to have some long-term impact — expect the studio to attempt to franchise this one beyond the already-in-the-works Chapter Two (How long before “Pennywise Vs. Annabelle” gets the greenlight?), expect more King adaptations despite “The Dark Tower” tanking just a month ago, and expect further films looking to tap that “Stranger Things” ’80s nostalgia vibe, plus more bigger-budget horror fare too. Anyway, with this film costing around $30 million, it’s a thundering win in a year that very much needed one.
Outside the Top 10, the only other major opener was Reese Witherspoon vehicle “Home Again,” which made the number two slot with an opening around the $9 million mark, but that’s still hardly a win — it’s down even from Witherspoon’s 2015 flop “Hot Pursuit,” her last starring role. “Big Little Lies” Season 2 may be calling…
Otherwise, “Hitman’s Bodyguard” continues to show legs by default of there being no other movies out and is creeping towards the $75 million mark, a win for its two stars at least, “Annabelle: Creation” should cross the $100 mark in the next week, “Wind River” continues to be a stealthy sleeper and should overtake “Hell Or High Water” before too long (a much-needed hit for The Weinstein Company) and July movies “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Dunkirk” are still hanging around the lower reaches of the chart.
The former has taken $70 million in its China opening, which bodes well for the film getting closer to $900 million mark and topping “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” as the top-grossing superhero movie of the year so far (though “Thor: Ragnarok” may have something to say about that). “It” is also crushing it worldwide, taking $62 million in international territories, the best ever-number for a horror movie.
The specialty box office had a quiet weekend, with “Rebel In The Rye” the only notable opener — the J.D. Salinger biopic took $44,280 in four theaters, respectable enough for a film without much buzz, but unlikely to excite many. Next week will see Annapurna’s “Brad’s Status” open in limited release, while wider, Darren Aronofsky’s “mother!” and “American Assassin” will try to chip some viewers off the second weekend of “It.” Come back next weekend to see if they can defeat Pennywise… Full Top 10 is below.
- “It” – $117.15m ($117.15m)
- “Home Again” – $9.028m ($9.028m)
- “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” – $4.85m ($64.897m)
- “Annabelle: Creation” – $4m ($96.267m)
- “Wind River” – $3.21m ($25.002m)
- “Leap!” – $2.5m ($15.874m)
- “Spider-Man: Homecoming” – $2.015m ($327.702m)
- “Dunkirk” – $1.95m ($183.11m)
- “Logan Lucky” – $1.826m ($25.228m)
- “The Emoji Movie” – $1.06m ($82.516m)