“It: Chapter Two” is already dominating the domestic box office ticket sales as it moves towards an opening weekend of $90 million.
The Warner Bros. horror movie is now set to score the highest opening since “The Lion King,” which debuted with $191.8 million in July, after $37.4 million at the box office on Friday. Furthermore, the film should readily see the second-biggest all-time horror film launch, beating out last year’s “Halloween,” which nabbed $76 million.
‘It: Chapter Two’ debuted in the biggest launch ever for an R-rated film at 4,570 domestic locations; however, the project’s estimated $90 million opening is still $33 million lower than its 2017 predecessor ‘It.’
The film picks up 27 years after the franchise’s first entry, featuring a grownup cast that includes James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader who must face the return of a murderous cosmic entity.
Pennywise is also seeing success overseas, where the film has drummed up $39 million to date. In the United Kingdom, the film earned $3 million, nabbing the country’s biggest opening day for a Warner Bros film in 2019 in addition to its second-biggest opening day ever for a horror film. Other top earners from Friday included Mexico ($2.5 million), Spain ($1.1 million) and Sweden ($509,000).
Based off of Stephen King’s novel of the same name, the film also features the return of Andy Muschietti who directed from Gary Dauberman’s script. Barbara Muschietti, Dan Lin and Roy Lee produced.
Box office holdovers round out the rest of the top five, including Lionsgate and Millennium’s “Angel Has Fallen,” which continues to show some solid staying power in its third weekend.
The Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman starring film took in another $1.7 million on Friday as it heads toward a projected $6 million come Sunday. If estimates hold, the film should increase its total haul to around $53.6 million.
Universal’s “Good Boys” is also holding well, taking in another $1.5 million on Friday as it looks to increase its domestic total to around $67 million. Other top films, Disney’s “The Lion King” and Universal’s “Hobbs and Shaw” should each take home $4.6 million and $3.6 million respectively.