It breaks record for biggest opening of a horror film

A movie theater.
(Image credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

It topped this weekend's box office charts, bringing in $117 million in the United States and Canada and breaking two records.

The $35 million adaptation of the Stephen King novel was projected to bring in $55 million, but it ended up having the largest opening for a horror movie and the biggest September opening weekend gross ever, the Los Angeles Times reports. It stars Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, a murderer who preys on children in a small town in Maine. The success of It is good news for Hollywood, which saw low ticket sales over the summer.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.