It has only been open for a weekend but the film It is already proving enormously popular. The horror movie has given Hollywood's ailing summer box office figures a boost with an estimated weekend take of $117.1 million, and has given fancy dress fans a reason to creep out members of the public.

It's a triumph for Warner Bros, the film's studio, who have been making the film with different directors and writers since 2009. True Detective director-producer Cary Fukunaga was the second director and co-writer to take the project on, between 2012 and 2015, but disagreements about budget and script saw Argentine director Andy Muschietti create the finished product. But if Fukunaga had his way, the film would have been far more disturbing.

The film is based on Stephen King's leviathan novel from 1986, of the same name, which famously had some scenes that would be unfilmable 30 years on. Namely, the group sex scene in which King's coterie of 11-year-old murderous clown-hunters embark upon near the end of the novel.