It is on track to become the highest-grossing horror movie of all time by the end of Thursday. According to Deadline, It has already made $228 million at the domestic box office, and $400 million worldwide—not even counting today’s numbers. (Keep in mind that the movie had a $35 million production budget.) This means everything is in place for the Losers Club and Pennywise the Dancing Clown to take the title of all-time highest-grossing horror movie from the 1973 version of The Exorcist, which boasts a $232.9 million lifetime domestic gross. It should be noted that the amounts have not been adjusted for inflation.
In case that’s not enough for you, though, It has also smashed another box office record: the highest-grossing title ever in the Labor Day-to-November timeframe. Gravity held that title previously, with a $274 million haul in 2013, and still holds the record for October’s highest-grossing domestic title. In comparison, It has already smashed box office records for the month of September.
It is hard to imagine that New Line, the studio behind It, wouldn’t want to capitalize on the mounting success of the film. While a sequel has yet to be officially announced, rumors of such started when Andy Muschietti, the director, spilled the beans to an Italian outlet that he would prioritize an It sequel over any of his other projects. Since then, Bill Skarsgård, who plays Pennywise the Clown, has confirmed that the sequel will explore his character's origins. Gary Dauberman is also reportedly already working on the sequel’s script.
Jaeden Lieberher, the 14-year-old actor who plays Bill in IT, recently spoke toVariety and revealed that the record-breaking movie did not include one of his favorite scenes. “I did have this scene where I climb up the tower at the end,” Lieberher said. “When I’m chasing after Georgie, I climb the tower and I’m at a one-on-one confrontation with Pennywise and then I say that I’m not afraid of him, that none of the losers are afraid of him, and that’s how we beat him.”
Those who have seen the movie will recognize that those lines are given later, towards the end of the movie in the sewer, regardless of how much work the other scene was to shoot. “I had this whole thing where Bill Skarsgård is grabbing me and pushing me off the ledge, and I had to wear this harness. That was a more difficult scene,” Lieberher explained.
