Many films floated too at the box office this weekend, as a record was completely annihilated by Pennywise and the Losers Club.
Running away with first place is IT (read our review), which earned a whopping $117.1 million in its first three days. That sets a new all-time mark for highest September debut, blowing the $48.4 million posted by Hotel Transylvania 2 out of the water. It was a perfect storm of factors for the Stephen King adaptation. The end of August was particularly bleak at the marketplace, with no high-profile new releases since The Hitman's Bodyguard a few weeks ago. It would have secured the top position simply due to lack of meaningful competition, but the response to IT certainly boosted its commercial prospects, allowing it to break out and become a phenomenon thanks to positive word-of-mouth.
IT is poised to have a long, fruitful run, seeing that it is off to a rousing start and should have strong legs because of the reception. It's true we're now going to be back to usual business at the multiplex, with multiple new wide releases each week from now until the end of the year, but it's unlikely any of the ones in the near future pose much of a threat to IT. That includes Darren Aronofksy's mother!, which is another R-rated horror movie that will look to bite into IT's target audience. Whereas that film is proving to be "weird" and divisive on the festival circuit, IT has a level of general accessibility to mainstream audiences, which plays into its favor. It's probably going to go down as one of the most successful films of 2017.
In a very distant second is Home Again, the Reese Witherspoon drama that opened over the weekend. It brought in $9 million over its first three days, a byproduct of playing in the shadow of IT and lukewarm reviews. Home Again was able to find a little bit of traction as a counter-programming option in a mostly barren landscape, but it's not going to become a crossover sensation.
Coming in third is the reigning champ The Hitman's Bodyguard, which earned $4.8 million in its fourth weekend. The action/comedy is now up to $64.8 million in its domestic run.
Coming in fourth is Annabelle: Creation. The Conjuring spinoff/prequel made $4 million, raising its Stateside total to $96.2 million.
Rounding out the top five is Wind River with $3.2 million. The drama increased its domestic haul to $25 million.
Animated film Leap! is the #6 movie. The effort from The Weinstein Company grossed $2.5 million during its third weekend and it now stands at $15.8 million domestically.
In what's becoming a box office trend lately, Spider-Man: Homecoming finished in seventh, posting $2 million. Marvel's latest blockbuster raised its domestic total to $327.7 million.
Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk comes in eighth with $1.9 million. The World War II drama (seen by many as an early Oscar contender) is now up to $183.1 million in the U.S.
The #9 film of the weekend is Logan Lucky with $1.8 million. Steven Soderbergh's hillbilly heist film currently stands at $25.2 million in the States.
Capping off the top 10 is The Emoji Movie. Sony's animated movie earned $1 million this weekend to raise its domestic total to $82.5 million.
[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates -- based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, September 11 -- at which time we'll update this post with any changes.]
Source: Box Office Mojo