Saturday Update: Warner Bros. / New Line report this morning that IT scored a massive $51 million opening day on Friday, including Thursday night’s $13.5 million. $3.05 million of the overall day take came from IMAX.
IT has blown away multiple records after just one day in release, including opening weekend benchmarks for September (passing Hotel Transylvania 2‘s $48.5 million weekend two years ago) and the horror genre itself (beating Paranormal Activity 3‘s $52.6 million opening weekend in October 2011). By comparison, IT‘s first day also crushes the strong horror performances of The Conjuring 2 ($16.4 million opening day in June 2016) and Insidious: Chapter 2 ($20.2 million from a Friday the 13th release in September 2013).
The studio notes the following records broken so far:
- Largest Thursday Pre-Show for a Horror Movie
- Largest Thursday Pre-Show for an R-Rated Movie
- Largest Thursday Pre-Show for a September Movie
- Largest Friday for a September Movie
- Largest # of Locations for a R-Rated Movie
Additionally, the New Line has blown past their achievements with more records to come:
- Largest Thursday Pre-Show
- Largest Opening Friday
Projections remain challenging given the unprecedented and — until recently — unexpected nature of this high-level performance, but for now, Boxoffice is expecting IT to crack the $100 million weekend threshold for an absolutely stunning new September record.
In the mean time, Home Again counter-programmed with an estimated $3.08 million on Friday (including $300,000 Thursday night). The Reese Witherspoon-led rom-com is on track to earn around $8.8 million in its first weekend.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard ($1.38 million), Annabelle: Creation ($1.2 million), and Wind River ($970,000) rounded out the top five on Friday. Our key weekend projections are below with updated estimates from the studios to follow on Sunday.
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It (2017) | $105,000,000 | — | 4,103 | — | $25,591 | $105,000,000 | 1 | Warner Bros. / New Line |
| 2 | Home Again | $8,800,000 | — | 2,940 | — | $2,993 | $8,800,000 | 1 | Open Road |
| 3 | The Hitman’s Bodyguard | $4,700,000 | -55% | 3,322 | -48 | $1,415 | $64,747,007 | 4 | Lionsgate / Summit |
| 4 | Annabelle: Creation | $3,900,000 | -48% | 3,003 | -355 | $1,299 | $96,167,010 | 5 | Warner Bros. / New Line |
| 5 | Wind River | $3,300,000 | -47% | 2,890 | 288 | $1,142 | $25,091,992 | 6 | The Weinstein Company |
| 6 | Leap! | $2,800,000 | -42% | 2,691 | -14 | $1,041 | $16,174,436 | 3 | The Weinstein Company |
| 7 | Dunkirk | $1,900,000 | -57% | 2,110 | -642 | $900 | $183,060,279 | 8 | Warner Bros. |
| 8 | Spider-Man: Homecoming | $1,800,000 | -51% | 1,657 | -379 | $1,086 | $327,487,794 | 10 | Sony / Columbia |
| 9 | Logan Lucky | $1,700,000 | -61% | 2,167 | -808 | $784 | $25,102,241 | 4 | Bleeker Street |
| 10 | The Emoji Movie | $975,000 | -60% | 1,450 | -658 | $672 | $82,431,858 | 7 | Sony / Columbia |
| 11 | Despicable Me 3 | $870,000 | -65% | 1,274 | -858 | $683 | $259,918,175 | 11 | Universal |
| 12 | Girls Trip | $765,000 | -67% | 1,123 | -484 | $681 | $113,323,470 | 8 | Universal |
| 13 | The Glass Castle | $570,000 | -60% | 1,037 | -323 | $550 | $16,114,885 | 5 | LionsgateLionsgate |
| 14 | The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature | $490,000 | -77% | 1,235 | -1416 | $397 | $27,381,894 | 5 | Open Road |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dark Tower | $770,000 | -52% | 948 | -872 | $812 | $48,923,461 | 6 | Sony / Columbia |
| 2 | Wonder Woman | $660,000 | -68% | 961 | -877 | $687 | $410,501,142 | 15 | Warner Bros. |
| 3 | War for the Planet of the Apes | $475,000 | -57% | 653 | -388 | $727 | $145,353,705 | 9 | Fox |
| 4 | All Saints | $475,000 | -61% | 834 | -12 | $570 | $4,614,277 | 3 | Sony Pictures |
| 5 | The Big Sick | $460,000 | -68% | 535 | -735 | $860 | $42,008,894 | 12 | Lionsgate |
| 6 | Baby Driver | $425,000 | -71% | 618 | -845 | $688 | $106,567,278 | 11 | Sony / TriStar |
| 7 | Hazlo Como Hombre | $400,000 | -66% | 382 | 0 | $1,047 | $2,046,851 | 2 | Lionsgate / Pantelion |
| 8 | Cars 3 | $325,000 | -82% | 510 | -1935 | $637 | $152,068,509 | 13 | Disney |
| 9 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind (re-release) | $315,000 | -82% | 787 | -114 | $400 | $2,896,070 | 2 | Sony |
| 10 | Kidnap | $160,000 | -90% | 918 | -771 | $174 | $30,161,114 | 6 | Aviron Pictures |
| 11 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales | $85,000 | -56% | 143 | -43 | $594 | $172,438,737 | 16 | Disney |
| 12 | Patti Cake$ | $65,000 | -74% | 189 | -106 | $344 | $719,496 | 4 | Fox Searchlight |
| 13 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | $50,000 | -77% | 129 | -67 | $388 | $389,756,914 | 19 | Disney |
| 14 | 47 Meters Down | $34,000 | -85% | 149 | -281 | $228 | $44,134,505 | 13 | Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Served Like a Girl | $1,200 | -50% | 1 | -5 | $1,200 | $8,848 | 3 | Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures |
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Friday Report: Warner Bros. reports this morning that IT crushed several genre records on Thursday evening with an estimated $13.5 million start from shows beginning at 7pm. That far exceeds the pre-Friday debuts of films like Paranormal Activity 3 ($8.0 million) and The Conjuring 2 ($3.4 million), while also topping non-horror, R-rated debuts like Logan ($9.5 million), Fifty Shades of Grey ($8.6 million), The Hangover Part II ($10.4 million from midnight shows), and even Deadpool ($12.7 million). Last night’s records broken include:
*Largest horror pre-show.
*Largest R-rated pre-show.
*Largest September pre-show
*Largest pre-show for a movie based on a Stephen King book.
Trajectories for IT get complicated at this point due to the unprecedented nature of a horror film debuting in this tier of grosses, but all signs point to an even bigger breakout weekend than anyone in the industry saw coming. Our forecast of $81 million for the weekend looks to potentially be on the low end at this point, but we’ll have a better idea of weekend projections with official Friday estimates from the studio tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Home Again also debuts this weekend but Open Road has yet to report Thursday night grosses. If and when they do, we’ll include them in this post, which will also be updated with Friday estimates and key weekend projections on Saturday morning.
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