Before yesterday, the record for an R-rated, non-sequel horror opening weekend was The Conjuring, with its $41 million debut in 2013. Before yesterday, the record for a September opening weekend was Hotel Transylvania 2 with $48m. The biggest opening for a Stephen King movie was 1408 with $20m (or, adjusted for inflation, The Green Mile with $18m in 1999/$31m today). And now, those records have been utterly demolished. Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It has earned $51m in its first day of release, including $3m in IMAX alone.
Yes, that’s including $13.5 million in Thursday previews (a record for an R-rated movie and a record for anything “scary” aside from Jurassic World). That $51m Friday is the biggest R-rated opening day/single day of all time, ahead of Deadpool’s $46m opening Friday and The Matrix Reloaded’s $42m Thursday ($62m adjusted for inflation). So yeah, me thinks Hannibal’s $58 million opening weekend benchmark (the biggest for an R-rated horror movie) is going to fall right… about… now.
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