While opening to a more modest opening compared to its predecessor, It: Chapter Two is on en route to nab some impressive titles.
The Warner Bros/New Line’s R-rated horror film opened on 4,570 screens — the widest release ever for a horror film to earn $90 million-plus in its opening weekend. According to estimations, the sequel to the Steven King adaptation could become one of the largest opening weekends for a horror film as well as score the best opening since The Lion King, which premiered in July to the tune of $191.8 million.
Despite that, the first It, which hit theaters in 2017 did do better at the box office scoring a record-shattering debut of $123.4 million over the same weekend in 2017. It was also better liked by critics — reviews are notably lower for Chapter Two with 65% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to 86% for the first film.
Rounding out the box office top five are Angel Has Fallen, with an estimated haul of around $53.6 million, followed by Universal’s Good Boys with a domestic total of around $67 million. The Lion King and Hobbs and Shaw took home $4.6 million and $3.6 million over the weekend respectively.
