'It' Faces Some Real Competition This Weekend
by EG
Stephen King's It dominated the box office last weekend, breaking multiple records with its phenomenal ticket sales. This week, however, it faces some gritty, scary competition in Jennifer Lawrence's Mother! and Dylan O'Brien's American Assassin. Can the scary clown from Maine scare up another winning weekend?
The film adaptation of Stephen King's novel is expected to win the weekend with $50 million-plus after scaring up a record-shattering $123.4 million debut last weekend. The horror film, from Warner Bros. and New Line, has become a water-cooler sensation, amassing nearly $145 million in its first six days.
It, which cost $35 million to make, is well on its way to earning north of $300 million domestically and becoming one of the top-grossing horror films of all time, even when adjusting for inflation.
New entries mother! and American Assassin are expected to do much more modest business, with projected openings in the $12 million-$15 million range (no one is sure how much It will cannibalize other films). Marc Forster's All I See Is You, starring Blake Lively and Jason Clarke, was also set to open nationwide on Friday, but Open Road Films pulled the film earlier this week and has set a new release date of Oct. 27.
With the summer season over, the marquee isn't so family friendly, considering It, mother! and American Assassin are all rated R.
From filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and Paramount, mother! stars Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer. The psychological horror-thriller made its world premiere earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival before screening at the Toronto Film Festival.
The mysterious story revolves around a married couple named Mother (Lawrence) and Him (Bardem), whose tranquil existence is tested when two strangers — Man (Harris) and Woman (Pfeiffer) — show up at their country Victorian home.
In December 2010, Aronofsky's awards darling Black Swan likewise debuted to modest numbers on its way to earning $104 million domestically and $329 million globally, as well as winning Natalie Portman the Oscar for best actress.
Director Michael Cuesta's action thriller American Assassin stars Dylan O'Brien as a CIA operative who teams with a veteran agent (Michael Keaton) to stop terrorists from starting a world war. The CBS Films and Lionsgate release also stars Sanaa Lathan, Shiva Negar and Taylor Kitsch.
Comps for American Assassin include such action pics as John Wick, which debuted to $14 million, and The Mechanic ($11 million). The movie is based on the late author Vince Flynn's novel of the same name.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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