Alamo Drafthouse has released a slew of new photos from their clown-only screenings of IT. Andrés Muschietti's reimagining of Stephen King's classic novel has shattered expectations at the box office in its opening weekend, virtually doubling projections and posting the biggest debut ever for a horror movie. The film also drew strong reviews from critics, making it one of the year's biggest all-around successes after less than a week in theaters.
IT appears poised to continue its big box office run on the strength of its infectious core group of young actors, Muschietti's unsettling visuals, and of course, Bill Skarsgard's frightening thrills as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The iconic villain inspired the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain to host clown-only screenings at many locations, requiring patrons to attend showings of the film in full clown costumes. They had no shortage of viewers willing to don the makeup and outlandish outfits, and a new set of photos reveals what some of the events looked like.
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You can see many of the "clowns" that invaded Alamo Drafthouse via the chain's official blog, Birth. Movies. Death. The photos reportedly came from pre-parties at four of Alamo Drafthouse's six locations in Austin, Texas, where the chain was founded. A wide variety of harlequins dressed for the occasion; you can spot a few visitors who went as Tim Curry's Pennywise from the original IT miniseries. The clowns ranged from silly to disturbing to murderous.
Check out photos from Alamo Drafthouse's all-clown screening of IT
According to Birth. Movies. Death., not everyone had to arrive at the events in full clown makeup. Those who weren't "sufficiently clownish" could get their faces painted by on-site artists. The parties also featured games and photo ops, in addition to Alamo Drafthouse's unique food & drink menu, before everyone got to see Muschietti's IT for the first time.
The events were ostensibly a rousing success for Alamo Drafthouse, which also held clown parties in Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Omaha, and even Brooklyn. As a company known for its strict policies regarding moviegoing etiquette, the IT screenings were probably that much creepier with literally everyone sitting in silence dressed as killer clowns. Considering the film's commercial success, perhaps you'll see more Pennywise lookalikes roaming around your local theaters.
Alamo Drafthouse certainly made plenty of IT fans happy, but it probably did nothing to curry favor with real-life clowns over their concerns that the new film would hurt their image. But that kind of controversy has followed Stephen King's story since the book's debut in 1986; it would have been hard for Muschietti's re-adaptation to make things any worse. For now, Alamo Drafthouse fans can simply get their clown costumes ready for the sequel.
Next: IT Shatters Box Office Records With Biggest Horror Movie Opening Ever
Source: Birth. Movies. Death.
