Stephen King’s dastardly clown returned to multiplexes over the post-Labor Day frame, and—as expected—It: Chapter Two dominated the weekend box office with an estimated $91 million. While that’s a far cry from the first It’s record-breaking $123.4M debut, the Warner Bros./New Line sequel nonetheless scored the second-highest opening weekend ever for a horror film, solidly ahead of last fall’s Halloween reboot ($76.2M), the second-highest opening weekend for the month of September and the fifth-highest debut of all time for an R-rated film.
Opening on an ultra-wide 4,570 screens—the highest-ever count for an R-rated movie and the fifth-highest among all films—It: Chapter Two rode an aggressive marketing blitz and a wave of hype to score the seventh-highest opening weekend of the year to date. The debut is just about what was anticipated by the studio going into the weekend, even as it was considerably below what many pundits had been predicting in light of the first film’s monster opening.
One possible factor in the lower opening weekend for the sequel in comparison to its predecessor may have been its longer running time. Clocking in at an ultra-long two hours and 49 minutes, the film runs 34 minutes longer than the first It, which likely affected the number of bookings theaters were able to pack into a day. But most importantly, excitement surrounding the sequel, while still substantial, seemed somewhat diminished as compared with Chapter One, with pre-sales in particular coming in considerably lower. Critics also weren’t as kind this time around: Chapter Two currently has a so-so 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, as compared with a much-better 86% for the first movie. That may well have dampened enthusiasm among viewers who were perhaps lukewarm on the first It to begin with.
Still, audiences who did turn out seem to have largely enjoyed Chapter Two, which racked up a B+ Cinemascore (the same as the first movie) and an 81% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, also roughly in line with the first film (albeit with far fewer reviews counted). That could point to the sequel performing similarly to the first It, which finished its run with $327.4 million, representing a weekend-to-final multiplier of 2.65x. Based on its opening weekend numbers, that would put Chapter Two somewhere around the $240 million mark domestically by the end of its run.
After two weeks in first place, Angel Has Fallen fell to second in its third weekend with an estimated $6 million, bringing the total for the action threequel to $53.4 million to date. That puts the Lionsgate release approximately 7% ahead of its predecessor London Is Fallen, which had taken in $50 million by the same point in its run.
In third place, Good Boys continued its leggy run with an estimated $5.4 million in its fourth weekend of release, bringing the Universal comedy to an impressive $66.8 million to date.
The Lion King enjoyed its eighth straight weekend in the top five with an estimated $4.2 million, putting it in fourth place and bringing the CGI remake to $529.1 million domestically. The Disney blockbuster will soon surpass Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($532.1 million) and The Dark Knight ($535.2 million) to become the 11th-highest grossing film of all time in North America.
Overseas Update:
It: Chapter Two opened to a strong $94 million from 75 markets, bringing its global opening total to $185 million. That gives it the highest international opening weekend ever for a horror film—ahead of the first It’s $62 million—as well as the biggest horror opening weekend ever in 16 markets including Russia, where it took in $8.8 million. Grosses for other territories include $10.2 million in Mexico, $9.4 million in the U.K., $7.1 million in Germany and $5.5 million in Italy. The film is set to open in France on September 11, while its final international market Japan opens on November 1.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw grossed $15.7 million internationally, bringing its overseas total to $555.5 million and its worldwide tally to $719.8 million. Included in this weekend’s overseas number was an estimated $9.7 million in China, where the action spinoff has racked up an impressive $184.5 million to date.
The Lion King brought in an estimated $13.4 million overseas, bringing its international cume to $1,0699 billion and its global total to $1.599 billion. The Disney release is currently the seventh highest-grossing movie of all time both internationally and globally.
More to come…
The post Studio Weekend Estimates: <em>It: Chapter Two</em> Floats to $91M in North America, $185M Global Debut appeared first on Boxoffice.
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