It simply cannot be overstated how much an R rated horror movie doing *this* well is going to change horror, going forward. This is HUGE for us all, friends.

We’ve been predicting for several months now that Andy Muschietti’s IT was going to shatter all kinds of box office records for both horror and rated R cinema at large, and we’re incredibly happy to see that we weren’t off base in making those bold predictions.

The film just opened last night, and it has already broken a huge record.

Last night, IT scared up $13.5 million in Thursday night previews, beating the R-rated Thursday night record previously held by Deadpool ($12.7 million). That Thursday number is also the biggest in cinema history for a September release, as well as for a horror movie!

At this time, IT is projected to make $65 million-$70 million over the course of the entire weekend, which guarantees it the biggest opening weekend for a September release and for a horror movie. Honestly, we’re thinking even those insane estimates are on the low side.

In its domestic opening weekend, Deadpool scored over $100 million at the box office, which leads me to believe that IT very likely could be approaching that number. With incredibly positive word of mouth and many who have already seen the film hungry to go back and see it again, this one is going to be a box office MONSTER.

We’ll be tracking IT throughout the weekend…