After two weeks in the top spot, Stephen King’s “IT” has been displaced by “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” to become this weekend’s box office champion with a debut opening of $39 million.
The action-comedy sequel outperformed the original, which brought in $36.2 million domestically in its opening weekend back in 2015, with “The Golden Circle” also estimated to bring in an additional $61 million at the international box office.
“We’re seven per cent bigger than the last one, which opened on a holiday weekend,” Chris Aronson, distribution chief for Fox, told Associated Press. “We grew the franchise. We’re very happy.”
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Despite being bumped to second place, the news is not all bad for “IT”, with the Stephen King adaptation raking in a solid $30 million in its third weekend. This bring the total domestic box office of “IT” to more than $266 million, unseating “The Exorcist” to become the highest-grossing horror movie of all time.
Rounding out the rest of the top five are “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” with a disappointing $21.2 million domestically in its opening weekend, followed by “American Assassin” ($6.3 million) and “Home Again” ($3.3 million).
Meanwhile, Darren Aronofsky’s Jennifer Lawrence-starring “mother!” languished at sixth place with an anemic weekend box office of just $3.3 million, following the film’s dubious distinction of being one of the few movies to earn a grade of F from website Cinemascore.
