Friday Estimates: It is Already Rewriting the Record Book with $51 million Friday

September 9, 2017

It

It was widely expected to earn the biggest September weekend box office of all time. In fact, many were expecting it to crush the old record. However, almost no one expected this. The film earned an estimated $51 million on Friday, which is more than the previous record holder, Hotel Transylvania 2, earned during its entire opening weekend. September is traditionally a weak time to open a movie, but this is in the top 30 biggest opening Fridays of all-time. There is some bad news here, as the film isn’t expected to have long legs. While the reviews remain stunning, the film only managed a B plus from CinemaScore. This is better than most horror movies earn, but it suggests average legs, at best. There is a small chance the film will earn less over the rest of the weekend than it earned on Friday, but I think that’s being a bit too pessimistic. I would put its range at between $100 million and $125 million. There’s a large margin of error, because we are in unprecedented territory here. It goes without saying that the sequel is already in the works. Box office watchers will get to play amateur casting agents for a little while, but I suspect some big names will be cast as the adults for part two.

Home Again will make less over the full weekend than It made during previews. Home Again opened in a distant second place with just $3.08 million on Friday, including $300,000 in previews. Its reviews have inched up to 32% positive, while it managed a straight B from CinemaScore, so its legs won’t be good, but its target audience should help out a bit. This suggests a $8 million opening weekend and just over $20 million in total. That’s not terrible for a film that cost $15 million to make, but it will need a lot of help on the home market to break even any time soon.

There are no other major new releases and the rest of the top five was so far back that there’s nothing that really needs to be said about their Friday numbers.

- Friday Box Office Chart

- It Comparisons
- Home Again Comparisons

Filed under: Friday Estimates, It, Home Again