‘IT’ Becomes All-Time Highest Grossing Horror Film

The week heading into its release, the latest adaptation of Stephen King‘s IT was predicted to earn $50 million in its opening weekend, only to shatter box office records by taking in over $120 million. Less than two weeks after opening, the film has gone on to become the top-earning horror film of all time, surpassing the total box office earned by The Exorcist.

According to Deadline, IT will have surpassed The Exorcist‘s $232.9 million total by this Thursday.

Being able to boast that a film is the “top grossing horror film” is nothing to shake a stick at, but that statistic does come with a few caveats.

For starters, The Sixth Sense, Jaws and I Am Legend still have a higher gross than IT, but they are considered “hybrid genres” by Warner Bros. as opposed to strictly horror. The Sixth Sense ($293 million) is “drama suspense,” Jaws ($260 million) is “action suspense” and I Am Legend ($256.4 million) is considered “sci-fi/fantasy.”

Two other factors to consider are the international grosses of the films and also their box office numbers when adjusted for inflation.

Calculations made by Bloody Disgusting tell a slightly different story, with Jaws having an adjusted $2.1 billion worldwide, The Exorcist earning an adjusted $1.8 billion worldwide and The Sixth Sense earning an adjusted $1.1 billion worldwide.

Currently, IT stands at around $750 million worldwide, with the potential to at least topple The Sixth Sense‘s adjusted numbers in the coming weeks.

IT‘s numbers are still quite impressive, especially considering The Exorcist was aided by multiple re-releases.

IT is currently in theaters.

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