'IT: Chapter Two' becomes second-highest grossing horror movie opening of all time
Opening this past Friday, "IT: Chapter Two" grossed an estimated $91 million at the domestic weekend box office, making it the second-highest opening weekend for a horror movie, according to Boxoffice Pro.
The film is a sequel to Stephen King’s "IT," in which Pennywise, a murderous clown, returns to terrorize the town of Derry once again after 27 years. The children-turn-adults who defeated the deranged clown in the first movie are forced to reprise their role and once again save the town.
Despite running two hours and 49 minutes — 34 minutes longer than the first "IT" — the sequel to the classic horror movie debuted on 4,570 screens, making it the most widely debuted R-rated movie in history, reports Boxoffice Pro.
Bringing in $185 million in world-wide revenue, the film still falls behind its predecessor in opening weekend sales. In September 2017, "IT" raked in $189 million globally its first weekend, with $123 million in domestic revenue and remains the top grossing horror movie of all time with over $700 million in sales globally to date, Box Office Mojo calculates.
Even with the decline in sales from the original, the "IT" sequel gained a B+ Cinemascore and an 81% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes. Boxoffice Pro notes that given the similarity of these scores to the scores attained by the first movie, if "IT: Chapter Two" maintains a similar trajectory to the first, it could bring in around $240 million domestically by the end of its run.
