‘It’ Movie Smashes All Box Office Records

Movie studios were hurting badly this summer because of the lowest ticket sales in over twenty years. The lack of positive financial performance of the major blockbusters released this summer put the entire film industry on edge.

Then along came the movie It.

It is a remake of the  Stephen King horror story directed by Andy Muschietti. The terrifying character of Pennywise the Clown is the central antagonist in the film. Warner Brothers/New Line, that released the film, was confident that it would do well; however, nobody expected it would smash all records. The financial projections expected the film, which was made for $35 million, to do $70 million in the USA. In spite of the hurricanes and the normally weaker release time of September, the film garnered over $123 million at the box office on its opening weekend.

Paste Magazine said that the record-breaking numbers upstaged all previous horror films. The previous record holders for the horror genre are Hannibal, which had a $58 million opening weekend and Paranormal Activity 3, which had a $53 million opening weekend. For films released during September, the previous record holder is Hotel Transylvania 2, which captured $48.5 million during its opening weekend. It also beat all previous films of any genre released in the fall (September to October). The record holder for fall releases used to be Gravity, which earned $55.8 million on its opening weekend.

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