Audiences put on their clown shoes and headed to the cinema to help bolster the opening weekend of “IT: Chapter Two” to a whopping $91,062,152, domestic. Taking a deeper dive into the all-time horror openings, “IT: Chapter Two” comes in at second, only behind its 2017 predecessor “IT”, which opened with $123,403,419 domestically.
Then looking at the top domestic R-rated openings of all-time, “IT: Chapter Two” drops to fifth, behind 2016’s “Deadpool” $132,434,639, 2018’s “Deadpool 2” which made $125,507,153, followed by 2017’s “IT”, and then the only film not released in the last 3 years, 2003’s “The Matrix Reloaded” $91,774,413.
While “IT: Chapter Two” did not overtake its predecessors opening weekend record, the film is still a financial success culminating $185,062,152 worldwide over the course of the opening weekend. This is despite having double the original films budget at $70 million. Another area where “Chapter Two” succeeded would be Stephen King adaptations. “Chapter Two” ranks second in that category only behind, you guessed it, “IT”.
These two films featuring Pennywise have made so much money, in fact, that the next highest opening weekend for a King adaptation has a nearly $67 million dollars differential; the 2019 adaptation of “Pet Sematary,” which opened with $24,502,775 domestic. “Chapter Two”, already ranks third in total box office gross in for Stephen King adaptations, only needing a little over $30 million to pass domestic total of “The Green Mile”; $136,801,374.
Back to this previous weekend, the rest of the domestic top 5 sees “Angel Has Fallen” dropping out of the top spot, making $5,990,157 in the film’s third week of release. Coming in third is the R-rated comedy, “Good Boys”, nearly missing out of second place with $5,479,460. However at fourth place, in its eighth week of release, is “The Lion King (2019)” making $4,324,341 and having spent its first seven weeks in the top three. Its weekend gross brings the remake’s total gross to $529,237,780 domestic.
Worldwide, “The Lion King (2019)” is cemented as the seventh highest grossing film so far, with $1.59 billion. This bumps “The Avengers” to eighth, and means only $100 million remains between it and “Jurassic World” for the sixth spot. If “The Lion King” (2019)” wants to crack the top five, we will need to see Simba and the gang bring out their legs as the fifth-place film, “Avengers: Infinity War” is sitting comfortably with the films sum of $2.048 billion. Rounding out the top five is “Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” overtakes the sixth-place film, “Overcomer”, by under $100,000, totaling $3,807,905 this weekend for the action spinoff.
After two weekends of the fall box office season, “IT: Chapter Two” is firmly in the lead of wide fall releases (movies opening on and after Labor Day), with an enormous 3-day sum of $91,062,152. Currently Pennywise’s only competition has been the David Oyelowo starring thriller, “Don’t Let Go”, that currently sits just at $4,302,776 after two weeks of release.
Looking ahead to this weekend we have two new wide release films entering the box office ring. The Jennifer Lopez starring “Hustlers,” which boasts a star-studded supporting cast consisting of Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lilli Reinhart as well as hip-hop artists Cardi B and Lizzo and focuses on strippers hustling Wall Street brokers. It is based on a New York magazine article. Also opening this weekend is the next film from “Brooklyn” director John Crowley, “The Goldfinch,” starring Ansel Elgort and based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name.
Box office roundup for the weekend of Sept. 6.
