What’s more terrifying than a red-headed clown pretending to be President? For the fictional town of Derry, Maine, it’s Pennywise – an ancient, trans-dimensional evil who terrorizes the “Losers’ Club” by manifesting as their worst fears. For Hollywood executives, their greatest fear would probably resemble the collapse of movie theater chains. After suffering the largest summer box office decline in nearly 25 years, their nightmare is starting to become a reality.

But the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic, It, has sent a powerful message that there is still hope for an otherwise fractured industry.

After only three weeks in theaters, It passed the $500 million milestone worldwide – eclipsing The Exorcist and making it the highest grossing horror film ever. In It‘s opening weekend alone, the film grossed more than Stephen King’s other summer adaptation, The Dark Tower, made in its entire theatrical run. Not to mention, It also had the biggest opening day for an R-rated film with $51.5 million.

For years, Hollywood has debated the economics of mainstream R rated films, particularly horror. Studios have perpetuated the myth that they alienate audiences and, by default, cannot possibly be as successful as PG-13 films. And for a genre as niche as horror, that level of doubt trickling down from the top makes their potential success even harder to achieve. What many have historically failed to realize is that these films do not bomb because of some arbitrary rating but rather the limitations imposed on the creative process – resulting in an inferior product.

By no means is an R rating a prerequisite for quality horror. Plenty of PG-13 horror films have been wildly successful – The Sixth Sense, The Others, Insidious, or The Ring to name a few. How important the rating is largely depends on where the story draws inspiration from. In the case of It, an explicit rating was necessary to develop the mature themes and disturbing imagery essential to the novel.

Within the first 10 minutes of It, Pennywise dismembers a child, and director Andy Muschietti pulls no punches in showing the grisly details. The Losers’ Club subsequently bleed, break bones, and undergo psychological trauma in ways that would not have been possible without the freedom enabled by the film’s rating.

Gorier horror films certainly exist, but Muschietti is uninterested in torture porn. His vision is rooted in a concern for authentic storytelling, not shock factor. This version of It possesses a fundamental understanding of and reverence for the source material that other big budget adaptations often lack.

Too often, studios trim material toward a PG-13 rating with the hope of achieving broader appeal, only to dilute the very qualities that made the original work so unique. The conceit is simple – if the pages are R rated, then the adaptation should be as well. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema also understand, though, that an R rating is only one piece of the puzzle.

More importantly, It marks a return to form for character-driven horror. And that’s really what makes the film so successful – the quiet moments in between the terror where we learn to sympathize with the Losers. At any given moment, Muschietti will shift gears and change the tone without undermining the sense of dread that immediately preceded a crass joke or heartwarming scene.

If you’ve read Stephen King’s 1,138 page novel, that contrast between horror and emotional drama isn’t a surprise. Non-horror fans may disagree, but the film isn’t all that scary. And yet, when Pennywise strikes, the fear we feel is more real than any jump scare could create. Because Muschietti spends the necessary time developing these characters beyond two-dimensional plot devices used in service of a cheap fright.

As with any great piece of horror, the supernatural elements are often allegories for larger, more personal themes. At its core, It is actually a coming-of-age story strategically disguised as a creature feature. It’s about growing up, facing your fears, and friendship.

Muschietti takes each of these themes and prioritizes building a compelling narrative around them. A murderous, shape-shifting clown just happens to be terrorizing this particular town. Pennywise is secondary to the Losers’ individual development – ultimately serving as the impetus for their growth.

Meanwhile, each character makes relatable decisions when facing the trials presented before them. Most mainstream horror films leave audiences frustrated by their protagonists’ questionable actions. IT flips the script by making you pray for its heroes’ survival instead of cheering on their pain. At the film’s climax, the Losers descend into the sewers in pursuit of Pennywise, not out of stupidity but united to conquer their fears.

Screenwriters should take note that this is how you write realistic characters in horror, specifically, children. The misfits of IT actually act like 13-year-olds, rather than a caricature of how a 45-year-old thinks a 13-year-old may behave. Echoing back to great kid-centric stories of the ’80s and early ’90s like Stand by Me, these kids curse like sailors while dealing with adult themes hardly seen since that generation of pop culture.

What should be a no brainer has become lost in the pursuit of billion-dollar franchises and extended universes – focus on your characters first, and everything else will fall into place. But Hollywood doesn’t have to choose between critical and financial success. They can have their cake and eat it too. IT has proved as much – to the tune of $558.1 million.

Let the triumph of It be a lesson to every upcoming horror film. Audiences will not only accept drawn out, mature character studies with less scares and more intimate, emotional moments. They will celebrate them.

With It: Chapter Two fast-tracked for 2019, you can almost guarantee that other studios will look to mimic Chapter One’s success. Will they be inspired to greenlight more horror – ushering in a new golden age for the genre? Or will they reinforce the idea that rebooting previously successful properties is still a good idea? Only time will tell. But if they’re as good as IT, does it really matter?