Weekend Box Office Report: September 8-10, 2017

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It grabs first place!

The adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel IT scared the cash out of audiences this weekend with a monstrous opening of $117.1 million!

Moviegoers happily jumped into the sewer to visit Pennywise, setting a record for biggest September opening as IT more than doubled the $48.4 million opening of HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 in 2015. (IT also performed better than any October release, again bringing in more than twice the $55 million opening of GRAVITY.)

The terrifying child-eating clown had the biggest horror opening ever, and also the second-biggest opening for an R-rated movie, creeping up behind the $132.4 million start of reigning champ DEADPOOL.

Additionally, of the movies adapted from the macabre author's work, only THE GREEN MILE currently has a higher domestic box office total with $136.8 million (in 1999), which IT will devour by next weekend.

It was a strong recovery from the worst August in 20 years — IT made more on its opening weekend that any August 2017 release grossed in the entire month (including the adaptation of King's own THE DARK TOWER, which hasn't even hit $50 million domestic yet). And it's a solid start to the fall movie season after the lowest-grossing summer in a decade (you can check out the full JoBlo 2017 summer box office wrap-up HERE).

IT also snatched an additional $62 million overseas for a worldwide opening of $179.1 million (on a reported cost of $35 million). Critics cheered the Losers Club and their battle with the dancing clown with an 86% average on Rotten Tomatoes (the JoBlo review is HERE).

All that spooky business had a frightening effect on the competition, with the new release HOME AGAIN opening in second place with only $9 million.

The Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy-drama (directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, daughter of romcom veteran Nancy Meyers) cost a reported $15 million, and left most critics cold with a 34% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

After holding #1 for three weekends, THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD was scared down to third place with $4.8 million. The R-rated Ryan Reynolds/Samuel L. Jackson action-comedy has a domestic total of $64.8 million after a month in release.

In fourth place, ANNABELLE: CREATION continues to chill with another $4 million as it approaches the $100 million domestic mark. The doll-horror prequel's $280 million worldwide total puts it over the $256 million global finish of the first ANNABELLE in 2014.

The Jeremy Renner/Elizabeth Olsen crime thriller WIND RIVER was in fifth with $3.2 million, which brings it to a domestic total of $25 million (on a reported $11 million budget).  LEAP! followed in sixth with $2.5 million — not much of a domestic success with $15.8 million, but the animated import is nearing $100 million worldwide.

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING seems permanently latched to seventh place, hanging on to the position for a fifth weekend with another $2 million. Marvel's wall-crawler also finally opened in China with $70 million, bringing its worldwide total to $823 million (swinging past the $816 million global total of the summer's domestic hero  WONDER WOMAN).

Christopher Nolan's war movie DUNKIRK slipped into eighth with $1.9 million as it draws closer to $500 million worldwide. Steven Soderbergh's heist comedy LOGAN LUCKY and the animated THE EMOJI MOVIE closed out the list.

Outside the chart, the GIRLS TRIP is over and DESPICABLE ME 3 dropped out of sight just as it crossed $1 billion worldwide.

Next weekend offers some espionage action with AMERICAN ASSASSIN, and filmmaker Darren Aronofsky dabbles in horror with Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem in MOTHER!

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