IT

If there’s one bone I can pick about the most recent adaptation of Stephen King’s It, it’s that the movie doesn’t spend enough time with Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Sure, we get that incredible opening sequence where he lures Georgie to his death, but people are right to call Bill Skarsgard’s character one of the most iconic horror characters in decades: he’s fantastically creepy and desperately in need of a lot more screen time. And now, with Andy Muschietti working on a director’s cut for the home video release, we might have one of the first scenes we’d like to see added back in.

It’s now been two weekends since Pennywise the Dancing Clown was unleashed upon unsuspecting audiences, and Hollywood may never be the same. Seriously. The kind of box office numbers we’re seeing right now will inspire, uh, major changes in how Hollywood tries to jump on specific trends. And while two new movies made a sort of solid showing for themselves over the weekend, the fact is this: it’s Pennywise’s world. We’re just living in it. Here’s the box office projections as of Sunday afternoon:

The extended version of the film will feature 15 minutes of footage cut from the original theatrical cut.

As we head deeper into September, two things have become pretty clear about 2017 box office numbers: one, Hollywood desperately needs to bounce back a little bit from the doldrums of August, and two, whoever decided to hedge their studio’s bets with a September release date for a movie about a killer clown is looking like a [profanity] genius right about now. We’ll get to all of that in a moment, but first, here are the box office numbers as of Sunday afternoon:

Think the classic novel and miniseries is about a scary clown? A new video essay reveals the true meaning of Stephen King’s horror masterpiece.

It won’t be hard for this fall to beat the worst summer box office in more than ten years, but it’s gearing up to blow the past few months out of the water. Fall — that is, Thanksgiving, a.k.a. all-the-kids-are-home-from-school-and-looking-for-something-to-do season — is almost upon us, and with it come some of the most exciting blockbusters of the year. And it’s Marvel vs. DC yet again as two superhero movies vie for the top spot.

Before the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s IT even hit theaters, early box office predictions suggested anywhere from a $60 to $70 million opening. By contrast, this year’s other big King adaptation, The Dark Tower, has grossed $47.9 million domestic in the month since its release. While we wait for the initial box office numbers to roll in, New Line is already developing a sequel to IT, but it probably won’t hit theaters until 2019.

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Stephen King adaptations are a dime a dozen these days (almost literally; rights to his books are famously cheap), but a good Stephen King adaptation, like a properly cooked steak or a movie where Harrison Ford is actually awake, is exceedingly rare. Of the two adaptations of beloved King novels released this year, the idea that IT might be the superior of the pair seemed laughable a few months ago. IT is better than The Dark Tower in every conceivable way, but beyond the inevitable comparison, it’s just really good. Scary good, even.