After a few restrained weekends at the box office, Pennywise is back to scare up some big money this weekend in It: Chapter Two. The sequel is poised to open very well this weekend but the question is: Can it top the opening weekend record for horror that was set by its predecessor?
When It opened in September of 2017, the industry knew it would be successful but no one could possibly anticipate how big it was about to become. The film opened to $123.4 million which was a September record and a record for the horror genre. An opening of that size is huge for just about any film but it was unheard of for the horror genre and really set the bar for how high the genre can go if the product is worth a trip to the theater. Helping matters was that It was well-received by critics (86% on Rotten Tomatoes) and that helped propel the film to a domestic take of $327.4 million and a staggering $700.3 million at the worldwide box office. It didn’t play like a typical horror film. The movie had legs and benefitted from repeat viewings and wowing various demographics.
This time around, with It: Chapter Two, the gang is all grown-up but they are still being haunted bt Pennywise. There is some anticipation from fans to witness how director Andy Muschietti wraps up the second half of Stephen King’s popular novel. In the case of the miniseries, which aired in 1990, it’s largely considered to falter once the story ventures from the kids to their transition into adulthood. The hope is that Muschietti can maintain the scares and add more bite to the latter part of the story.
From a critical standpoint, it seems Muschietti mostly succeeds. The film is 79% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, down a bit from the original but good for the horror genre, especially a sequel in the genre. The one detriment from most of the reviews, even the good ones, is the film’s length. The movie clocks in at 2 hours and 49 minutes which is long for any film but a bit lengthy for horror. The first film was 2 hours and 15 minutes, which was deemed a little long by some so extending the length for Chapter Two will be a key element in determining the weekend box office.
It: Chapter Two entered tracking pretty much matching the opening of the first film with $120 Million+ but I really think the length is going to prevent the film from matching those heights. I think the quality of the film will be mostly satisfying for fans but the runtime is bound to be a gripe and it definitely limits the number of showings the film can get in a single day.
There are signs that It: Chapter Two could live up to the opening of the original. Fandango has reported that the sequel is their best horror pre-seller ever, besting the advance ticket sales of It, Us, last year’s Halloween and The Nun. The same is the case for Atom Tickets as its also seeing the best presales to date for a horror film, with It: Chapter Two beating its previous genre title-holder Halloween by 3 times. Even if the domestic opening doesn’t match its predecessor, box office experts say its international presence has grown since the release of It in 2017 and that its global opening could hit a record $200 million+, besting the global $189.7 million opening of the first film.
That being said, the only way I can see it matching the opening of the original is if the lack of a must-see film the last few weeks might make moviegoers hungry for something exciting. I won’t be surprised if it surges that high but realistically my instinct says the opening well land somewhere between $100-115 million due the length of the film and because of slightly less anticipation and hype for the brand this time around.
