BY NICHOLAS LUCCIANTONIO
The new IT movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novel has been nothing but a terrifying success.
The horror movie directed by Andrés Muschietti has shattered box office records and is the highest grossing R-rated horror film worldwide and the highest grossing September release.
Cineplex has had a boost in popularity because of the new blockbuster horror film. Within four weeks of the movie being released, it has made its way to the top.
Cineplex worker Theresa Estonina has witnessed all the buzz surrounding the King adaptation firsthand and wasn’t surprised one bit.
“Since this movie is a remake, a lot of the people who have seen the old one want to see it as well as people of this generation. Stephen King’s book also has readers that would want to check out the movie,” said Estonina.
The movie is based on the clown Pennywise that terrorizes children and kidnaps them. It’s something about this horror film that made everyone want to see it.
Moviegoer Laura Kohanic has seen IT and loved every minute of it. “The cast definitely played a role in how much I wanted to see it. I know that the kids in the movie were all really well-respected actors and I’ve seen shows with some of them in it,” said Kohanic. “I’m also petrified of clowns so seeing (Bill Skarsgård) play Pennywise in the movie was something I really wanted to see.”
Pennywise the dancing clown has not only scared kids into sewers, but also viewers into theatres.
“There was definitely more people coming out to see movies because of IT. There was a lot of buzz surrounding it and that made for a very popular first few weeks. It was even sold out for the first four-five days,” said Estonina. “It was crazy.”
Although it was already adapted into a movie almost three decades ago, the new adaptation has sparked much more conversation than the last. It has smashed the box office right
off the bat, making $404.3 million worldwide in just three weeks.
“The movie came out 27 years after the first one and in the book Stephen King wrote that IT appears every 27 years. So, I thought they played that off very well,” said Kohanic. “It made it a little more of a must see.”
The previous IT aired in 1990 starring Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown. The miniseries was popular, but did not create the same amount of buzz as the current adaptation of the Stephen King classic.
The classic movie, The Exorcist was surpassed by IT in only a matter of three weeks. The horror classic has been a trademark film for scary movie fans everywhere. So, it comes as a surprise that the 44-year-old record has been broken in such a short amount of time. The Exorcist made $441.3 million during its tenure, whereas IT is currently sitting at a whopping $478 million and counting.
