The summer movie season is finally over, and while September and October usually make for a quieter cinematic period, don’t think that means there aren’t any highly-anticipated releases during this time. For instance, this weekend will finally see the release of IT Chapter Two, which follows two years after IT and is telling the other half of the behemoth 1986 Stephen King-penned tale.
Last week, Atom Tickets announced that IT Chapter Two sold more tickets in pre-sales than any other horror movie the service has listed. Now Fandango has revealed that the sequel is also outselling all other horror movies its own sales cycle, further proving that a lot of folks are eager to check out IT Chapter Two and are snagging their tickets now rather than taking their chances at the box office. IT Chapter Two takes this pre-selling horror record from its predecessor, knocking Us to #3, the most recent Halloween to #4 and The Nun to #5.
Additionally, Fandango surveyed over 1,000 movies fans and discovered that the majority are looking forward to IT Chapter Two most between September and the end of November, with Joker and Frozen II taking second and third place, respectively. Jessica Chastain also ranked third on the Top Ten Most Anticipated Fall Female Performances list for playing Beverly Marsh, and Bill Skarsgard ranked sixth on the Top Ten Most Anticipated Fall Male Performances list for reprising Pennywise.
So if there was any doubt left in your mind that people were looking forward to IT Chapter Two, let that be immediately extinguished. Looking at the positive reviews that IT earned in 2017 and the $700+ million it collected worldwide, it was one of the biggest horror successes in years, and its successor could perform similarly, if not be even bigger.
Of course, pre-sales are one thing. What about how the movie actually performs? Obviously we’re days away from getting our first indicator on the commercial front, but at one point it was predicted IT Chapter Two’s domestic opening weekend could fall between$110-$150 million. Tracking has since fallen to $90-$100 million, which would be slightly behind IT’s haul of $123.4 million, but would nonetheless be impressive.
Critically speaking, IT Chapter Two has earned a more mixed reception compared to IT, ranking at 79% among critics on Rotten Tomatoes and earning a 60 score on Metacritic. But overall, it looks like it’ll be a movie worth checking out, whether you’re heavily invested in this corner of the Stephen King universe or are just looking to immerse yourself in nearly three-hours of frights.
Picking up 27 years after the events of IT, IT Chapter Two follows the Losers Club members reuniting in their hometown of Derry, Maine to defeat Pennywise once and for all. Along with Jessica Chastain and Bill Skarsgard, the main cast includes James McAvoy, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone and Andy Bean, as well as all the actors who played the Losers Club members as kids reprising their respective roles.
IT Chapter Two scares its way into theaters this Friday, September 6, but be sure to read CinemaBlend’s review of the movie before checking it out for yourself. As for what else there is to look forward to on the silver screen for the rest of the year, browse through our 2019 release schedule for that information.
