Tuesday September 10, 2019

New Line and Warner Bros. scored a much needed win as It: Chapter 2 debuted with $91 million, kicking off the fall movie season by driving the domestic box office to 12% gain over the same frame in 2018 when another horror film, The Nun, opened with $53.8 million.

While Chapter 2’s $91 million opening was 26% lower than the Chapter 1’s horror film record $121 million bow, it is still the second highest total ever for a horror film, and the second best opening for any non-Disney, non-MCU title film since Chapter 1 opened in September of 2017, trailing only Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. With a cost of $90 million and a worldwide debut that tops $185 million, Chapter 2, though it won’t be as big a hit as Chapter 1, it is still a much needed win for Warner Bros.

Why did Chapter 2 debut that much lower than Chapter 1? There are many possible reasons. Chapter 2 was not as well-reviewed as Chapter 1 (67% positive on Rotten Tomatoes for Chapter 2 vs. 86% for its predecessor). Chapter 2 is also 35 minutes longer than Chapter 1 with an extremely long two hours and forty-five minute running time. Also while Chapter 1 featured kids battling Pennywise in Chapter 2 it’s the adult versions of those kids who return to their hometown to deal with a threat they thought they had vanquished before.

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