While the big story at the box office this weekend is “Blade Runner 2049” and its surprising collapse, another Warner Bros. release, “It,” has quietly reached a milestone that few R-rated movies — none of them in the horror genre — have been able to reach: $300 million domestic.
The Stephen King adaptation reached this mark in its fifth weekend in theaters, grossing an estimated $9.4 million and pushing its domestic total to $304 million, good enough to put it fifth-best among all 2017 releases.
Meanwhile, the worldwide total has reached $600 million, with an international total of $298.8 million. All this has been done on a production budget of $35 million.
By nature of their restricted admission and subject matter, there’s always been a ceiling on the performance of R-rated movies in general that only a few movies like “It” have been able to break.
In box office history, only three other R-rated films have ever been able to gross over $300 million domestic: “The Passion of the Christ” ($370.2 million), “Deadpool” ($363 million), and “American Sniper” ($350.1 million).
“The triple crown of factors got us to this point: great marketing, great distribution, and of course, a great movie,” said Warner Bros. distribution head Jeff Goldstein, who also told TheWrap that there are plans to put the film in additional screens close to Halloween.