The deep slumber the box office has been in is about to be scared out of its sleep this weekend. The highly anticipated remake of Stephen King’s It has finally arrived and it’s poised to do some big business.
The buzz is that everyone wants to see the King classic on the screen and it’s causing some extreme excitement among moviegoers. There’s a sweet spot with the young-20s crowd and this crazed clown-meets-Stand by Me pic — which is the first of two installments focusing on the young kids who are haunted by Pennywise — is red hot on social media. Following early screenings, RelishMix noticed a jump over the last week in #ItMovie hashtags, from 4,500 to 10K last week.
That early reaction from screenings (which has been overwhelmingly positive) and a solid marketing campaign has set the tone for the film to do big business this weekend. It was also announced by Fandango that the film set a record for pre-sale tickets within the horror genre, surpassing the pre-sale numbers for Paranormal Activity 3. Critics also seem to like this one with a solid 89% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing.
Even if the film lands in the $40 million range (which I doubt it will — this film will not crash), it’s a huge hit for New Line considering the film before P&A was made for a reported $35 million. Any three-day take above $48.4 million makes It the highest opening ever for the month of September (that’s the previous three-day record for the month, from Sony Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 2). Fans will be able to see It on Thursday starting at 7PM. Pic will also be playing on Imax screens stateside and select auditoriums overseas.
As for my prediction, I’m going to go high with about $65 million but if it tops $70 million as some suggest it will, it will be awesome to see a horror film hit that huge at the box office
There’s also a Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy opening this weekend as a sort of counter programming for the ladies out there. It should do modest business but lackluster reviews will hurt this one in the end (it has a lowly 35% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing). Witherspoon is a draw in films like this though and it should be enough for a decent $10-12 million opening for Home Again before it fades into September obscurity.
Check out the final box office results on Monday!
