It is the adrenaline rush the box office sorely needed after a summer that could accurately be described as “pretty bad” — the new take on Stephen King’s doorstop of a novel is the best horror opening ever, the highest single-day box office for an R-rated movie, the lowest-budgeted movie to gross over $100 million in its opening weekend, and now it’s the biggest opening for a September movie in history.
It’s now been two weekends since Pennywise the Dancing Clown was unleashed upon unsuspecting audiences, and Hollywood may never be the same. Seriously. The kind of box office numbers we’re seeing right now will inspire, uh, major changes in how Hollywood tries to jump on specific trends. And while two new movies made a sort of solid showing for themselves over the weekend, the fact is this: it’s Pennywise’s world. We’re just living in it. Here’s the box office projections as of Sunday afternoon: