There's no question that the latest Stephen King adaptation, It, is having a moment in the zeitgeist. The film has inspired a world of Pennywise-adjacent memes, including one in which the terrifying clown dances to "Shake It Off," which is guaranteed to haunt Swifties' dreams forever.
With the It sequel already scheduled for a September 2019 release date, Pennywise isn't going away anytime soon. And now, the creepy clown flick has broken a box office record previously held by one of the scariest movies of all time.
Take that, demonically possessed, split pea soup-puking Reagan. You're all (foul) talk.
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According to The Guardian, It has broken The Exorcist's 44-year record and become the highest-grossing horror film of all time. The Andrés Muschietti-directed film has earned over $500 million at the box office, where The Exorcist has only earned $441 million. Considering It is still in theaters — and the fact that it only came out on September 8 — that's a pretty incredible feat, even if adjusting for inflation does still put the 1973 Linda Blair film ahead of the Losers' Club's debut.
It also puts It in good company with some of the other top horror earners. According to Box Office Mojo, in terms of total lifetime gross, including theater sales, It is just behind M. Night Shyamalan's famous ghost story, The Sixth Sense. Other films on Box Office Mojo's list, which has separated the films into the supernatural horror category as opposed to simply slasher flicks, includes The Blair Witch Project, The Ring, and What Lies Beneath.
Basically, It has proved that Pennywise is the scariest supernatural entity to ever grace the big screen. Of course, if you're already have a case of coulrophobia, you already knew that.