5th Update, Early Sunday AM: It Chapter Two is having a similar Friday-to-Saturday percent hold as the first film, at -10% with $33.6M yesterday, taking the weekend to an estimated $91M, per the studio, still the second-best start for September and a horror pic.

It’s the fifth-best for an R-rated pic, opening behind Matrix Reloaded‘s $91.8M, but is likely fourth with industry estimates seeing $92M for the movie. Imax and PLF drove 21% of the sequel’s B.O. For Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader and James McAvoy. Chapter Two is their best live-action opening at the domestic B.O.

Worldwide, Chapter Two is at $185M, the second-best global start for a horror pic behind It at $189.7M.

Per finance sources, even with the higher production cost of Chapter Two over It, $79M to $35M, the sequel is still a terrific piece of business, still likely to be profitable, though lower than It‘s near $300M.

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Beamed Warner Bros. Domestic Distribution boss Jeff Goldstein, “We are really proud of Andy Muschietti and how he’s able to scare the stuffing out of audiences everywhere.”

“Richard Brener and Carolyn Blackwood and their New Line team along with Warner’s Blair Rich and her marketing team, hit it way out of the park,” added Goldstein.

It’s funny, you have can have a superhero movie sequel that’s three hours long do an all-time record amount of business (Endgame at $357.1M) while kids are still in school, but it’s different for an R-rated horror sequel. We hear from some exhibitors that the 2 hours 49-minute running time curbed business for them. It’s a horror film, so Chapter Two isn’t a big matinee show. One East Coast regional exhibitor had Chapter Two on four screens out of nine and could only squeeze out 13 shows. Five of the 13 were evening shows, and he could have had more in the evening if the pic was shorter (note, there’s the trailer pre-roll, advertising, and cleaning between showtimes). But the longer running time meant keeping staff later into the night, and customers getting out at 1 AM. All of this said, Warners was fully aware of the long running time, of course, and aimed to be everywhere with the sequel, making it the widest September release ever at 4,570.

There was a dip in exits here for Chapter Two, with fans on Thursday providing Screen Engine/Comscore’s Post Trak a four star, 80% response, with a 62% definite recommend. Once the crossover crowds came out on Friday and into Saturday, these dipped to 3 1/2 stars, 76% positive and a 56% definite recommend. This, too, could have contributed to a bit of the slowdown. Note, the sequel’s opening does fall within tracking’s range of $90M-$100M (Warners had a bottom floor of $85M for Chapter Two).

Nonetheless, there were crowds, and Chapter Two left all other pics in the top 10 with single digit million results. Updated audience turnout was 50/50 Male and 50% under 25 years old, with 64% between 18-34 years old. Solid turnout per each 25 +/- demos. As of last night, men under 25 led at 28%, males over 25 at 26%, women over 25 at 24%, and females under 25 at 22%. The mix was 47% Caucasian, 26% Hispanic, 14% African American, & 13% Asian/Other.

Friday night CinemaScore audiences under 18 gave Chapter Two a solid A, while the under-25 set at 33% gave the sequel an A-. Overall grade was a B+, just like the first movie.

Chapter Two played best on the coasts, particularly the West, along with the South-West (propelled by Hispanic crowds), but was strong everywhere. Los Angeles was Chapter Two‘s biggest market with around 9% of all ticket sales, followed by NY (6%) and then Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco (around 3% each). Canada pulled in 7% of the weekend.

Much like Marvel transformed the beginning of May into a box office bonanza launchpad, so has Warners here with horror fare in the once-dormant post Labor Day weekend. They have Conjuring 3 on deck a year from now, with New Line untitled horror pics booked for Post Labor Day in 2021 and 2022. With both It pics, Warners/New Line has truly raised the box office bar, and it will be interesting to see if they can outdo themselves in years to come.

The first It held No. 1 for two weekends in a row. That’s likely to be the case again here. STX’s Jennifer Lopez stripper pic Hustlers, which remains awesome on tracking with females, Hispanic, and African American audiences with a $26M projection, is hot out of the gate here at TIFF, with a handful of reviews putting the female empowerment story at 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Comscore reports that this year’s post Labor Day frame clocked $136.7M, +13% from a year ago, when New Line had The Nun. Year to date box office through today is estimated at $7.97B, -6% from the same period a year ago which was at $8.48B.

Sunday figures:

WEEKEND B.O. FOR sEPT. 6-8 thumb rank pic dis scrs(cg) fri sat sun 3-day total wk 1 It Chapter Two NL/WB 4,570 $37.2M $33.6M $20.1M $91M-$92M $91M-$92M 1 2 Angel Has Fallen Mil/LG 3,229 (-107) $1.7M $2.7M $1.6M $6M (-49%) $53.5M 3 3 Good Boys Uni 3,193 (-265) $1.6M $2.5M $1.3M $5.4M (-43%) $66.9M 4 4 The Lion King Dis 2,610 (-580) $990K $2M $1.1M $4.1M (-39%) $529.1M 8 5 Overcomer Sony 2,153 (+326) $1M $1.5M $1.1M $3.75M (-34%) $24.7M 3 6 Hobbs & Shaw Uni 2,299 (-673) $950K $1.8M $980K $3.7M (-42%) $164.2M 6 7 Peanut Butter Falcon RSA 1,310 (+61) $634K $938K $704K $2.28M $12.2M 5 8 Scary Stories CBS/LG 2,101 (-646) $593K $1.1M $594K $2.28M (-54%) $62.1M 5 9 Ready Or Not FSL 2,350 (-607) $684K $1M $523K $2.2M (-62%) $25.6M 3 10 Dora Par 1,788 (-689) $410K $1M $760K $2.17M (-47%) $54.1M 5

Brooke Palmer/Warner Bros.

4th Update, Saturday AM: It Chapter Two slowed down to a $38.1M opening day, now bound for a $92M opening weekend. Distributors hate when this happens: There was a projection fever for the sequel on Friday afternoon with many distrib sources seeing north of $100M. However, the decline isn’t surprising given that this is a horror pic, and a sequel which means front-loaded business. Still, as we said earlier, you can’t ding this start as it’s the 2nd best for September and a horror film — 2nd best to what was an anomaly for the start of the fall B.O. season two years ago, It ($123.4M). Also, Chapter Two is so powerful, it’s taking the air out of the box office with everything else in the top 10 in the single digits (granted, there weren’t any wide entries last week). We also have to factor in that Chapter Two at 2 hours and 49 minutes is as long as the latest director’s cut of Midsommar, and that’s a big ask for horror fans to sit through, especially on a sequel. Obviously a 3 hour-plus running time never hurt Avengers: Endgame, though some analysts believe that might be a pin in Pennywise’s balloon here.

Sometimes there’s some extra cash that exhibitors have from Friday night which goes unreported and we don’t see that until Saturday AM (studios have yet to report as of this writing), but analysts are projecting at least a -15% decline for Chapter Two today when compared to its first day which includes $10.5M Thursday night previews. Chapter Two we hear cost $79M net, shot in Canada with tax credits, before P&A. That’s 126% more than the first movie which cost $35M + $154M in global P&A which yielded a near $300M profit after all worldwide ancillaries were counted. Higher price here comes from the star cast involved, meaning Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader and James McAvoy.

CinemaScore for Chapter Two remains the same as It: B+, however PostTrak exits have whittled from 4 stars when the fans came out on Thursday night to 3 1/2 stars last night. Men and women over 25 are out in equal force at 26%. Women under 25 showed up at 25% and men under 25 are at 23%. That’s a perfect picture for a studio when it comes to a turnout: Equal draw all around. 58% definite recommend. Diversity draw was 48% Caucasian, 29% Hispanic, 12% African American and 6% Asian.

RelishMix notes on the social media reaction for Chapter Two that on the positive side, “Fans of the 2017 original have crossover sentiment with those who loved Stephen King’s original novel and even the 1990s TV mini-series. Everyone interested in Chapter Two has different scenes, moments, characters and fears that they are having fun discussing and analyzing with each other on social. It’s interesting to see a campaign’s discussion veer more towards personal stories and more in-depth discussion than the typical quick, shorthand references to moments from the trailers that typically indicate strong interest in the film in question. Chapter Two has some great preceding properties that have built a branding effect with those running out to see it this weekend.”

RelishMix also observes, “The negative side of the fence certainly possesses less shout – but are genuine in their opinion that the 2017 film did not have the impression on them that the book did. There are also references to McAvoy as ‘Professor X’ that are polarizing, as in either very strong or very negative as in he’s perhaps a distracting casting choice to some. Similarly Bill Hader is sometimes referred to as ‘Barry’ from his HBO dram-edy portrayal. Regardless, much more of the negative sentiment is potentially from horror fans who don’t want to be let down by a film they’ve eagerly been anticipating.”

Nonetheless huge social media universe here for the sequel at 411M across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube views, and Instagram. That’s a 50% surge from the first film’s social media draw of 273M, which were numbers only superhero movies would see. Chapter Two‘s viral rate for videos is a whopping 42:1, far outweighing the usual horror film’s 25:1 by opening week. This rate of re-posted videos is particularly strong considering Warner Bros. posted only nine clips on its YouTube channel. The sequel is also earning 78,8K average daily views across its top YouTube videos, once again well ahead of the genre benchmark of 27,7K.

The social star of Chapter Two is young Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard at 19.1M. RelishMix says, “It’s a very strong element of the campaign to see these creatives on both the younger co-star’s pages and feeds and then the older co-star’s social destinations, too. While some cast like Bill Hader are not social, it’s always nice to see the original author’s involvement in promotion – Stephen King once again brings his nearly 12M social following to the mix.” Chastain boasts a social media following of 4M.