This weekend, once again, America confirmed its fascination with fucked up clowns, as the film adaptation of It was expected to wrap up it's second week in theaters with $60 million in box office receipts. If those projections do indeed hold up, then It's domestic gross will be $218.7 million, which not only represents a substantial success compared to their reported $35 million budget, but also made the Stephen King adaptation the highest grossing September release...ever (though, please don't adjust for inflation, come on now).
It made the leap to No. 1 following a strong Friday ($19.4 million), a strong Saturday ($26.2 million), and what is projected to be a strong Sunday ($14.5 million). Even if it flops on Sunday, it already passed the total that was racked up by the previous record holder for September movies, Crocodile Dundee, which earned a whopping $174.8 million back in 1986.
If you look outside American borders, to places that perhaps don't think clowns are synonymous with creepy psychopaths who will lure you into the sewer (looking your way Iran) It still did very well, earning $60.3 million this past weekend. That brings the movie's international total to $152.6 million, and it's total, uh...total, to $371.3 million.
The strong showing by the film has actually, somewhat, helped Hollywood rebound from a crappy summer where a string of box office turds (that were actually pretty good critically) helped people narrow their weekend plans down by crossing off "going to the movies" from their lists. In fact, attendance at movie theaters is up nearly 40 percent this September as compared to last September, thanks in large part to It's success.
Must be freaking nice to be Stephen King.
