It (2017), titled It Chapter One on screen, is Andy Muschietti’s supernatural horror film adapted from Stephen King’s 1986 novel. Seven outcast kids in Derry, Maine, who call themselves the Losers’ Club, realize that the same shapeshifting creature is hunting each of them, mostly in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. It is the first of two films and the second screen version of the novel, after the 1990 TV miniseries. With Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd as the clown, it became a box office phenomenon and, before inflation adjustments, the highest-grossing horror film of all time.
At a glance
| Release date | September 8, 2017 (US; premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre, September 5) |
| Director | Andy Muschietti |
| Writers | Chase Palmer, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman (screenplay) |
| Based on | It (1986 novel) by Stephen King |
| Starring | Jaeden Lieberher (now Jaeden Martell), Bill Skarsgård, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff |
| Runtime | 135 minutes |
| Rating | R (MPAA) |
| Budget | $35 million to $40 million |
| Box office | $702.8 million in its original run; $719.8 million including re-releases |
| Franchise | It (Stephen King franchise); sequel It Chapter Two (2019); prequel series It: Welcome to Derry (HBO, 2025) |
Plot summary
In October 1988, Bill Denbrough’s little brother Georgie chases a paper boat down a rain-soaked street. It drops into a storm drain, where a clown is waiting. By the next summer, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) still believes Georgie might be alive. He and his friends Richie, Eddie and Stan, misfits who are bullied by Henry Bowers and his gang, start looking for him. They are joined by Ben, a new kid who has been researching Derry’s history of disasters and missing children, by Beverly and by Mike. Calling themselves the Losers’ Club, they realize that each of them has been stalked by something that takes the shape of their worst fear, most often the clown Pennywise (Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd).
The film is as much a coming-of-age story as a horror film. It contrasts the friendship of bike rides and swimming holes with adult neglect and cruelty, while the Losers trace the creature to an abandoned house on Neibolt Street.
Spoiler section: the ending
When Pennywise takes Beverly, the Losers go down into the sewers to find its lair. The creature offers to let the others go if they give up Bill, but they refuse. By facing their fears together, they beat it back, Beverly drives a broken pipe into its face, and It retreats down a well. Bill finally accepts that Georgie is gone. At summer’s end, Beverly describes a vision of them fighting It again as adults, and the Losers swear a blood oath to return if it ever comes back. That sets up the second film.
Production and behind the scenes
Warner Bros. announced a feature adaptation in 2009, with David Kajganich writing. Cary Joji Fukunaga signed on in 2012 to direct and co-write with Chase Palmer, and the project moved to New Line Cinema in 2014. Fukunaga left, and in July 2015 Andy Muschietti entered talks to direct, with his sister Barbara Muschietti producing and Gary Dauberman revising the script. Will Poulter, cast as Pennywise in Fukunaga’s version, dropped out because of a scheduling conflict, and SkarsgÃ¥rd took over in June 2016. The new version moved the children’s story from the novel’s 1950s to the late 1980s and saved their adult lives for a second film.
Principal photography ran from June 27 to September 21, 2016, in Toronto. The small lakeside town of Port Hope, Ontario, stood in for Derry, and the Neibolt Street house was built for the production. Costume designer Janie Bryant gave Pennywise a suit that mixes Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan and Victorian influences, to suggest a clown from no particular time. Muschietti cited The Howling, The Thing and Near Dark as influences, along with Steven Spielberg’s emotional storytelling.
Release and reception
It premiered at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre on September 5, 2017, and opened in North America on September 8. It played in 4,103 theaters, a record for an R-rated film, and set records with $13.5 million from Thursday previews and a $123.4 million worldwide opening weekend. It went on to gross $327.5 million in the U.S. and Canada and $702.8 million worldwide, rising to $719.8 million with later re-releases. Unadjusted for inflation, that made it the highest-grossing horror film ever, and Deadline Hollywood estimated its net profit at $293.7 million.
Critics praised the young cast, SkarsgÃ¥rd’s unsettling clown, Muschietti’s direction and Chung Chung-hoon’s cinematography. The film holds an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 387 reviews and a Metacritic score of 69, and audiences gave it a “B+” CinemaScore.
Legacy and influence
The film’s success turned Pennywise into one of the most recognizable horror villains of its decade, and it showed the industry that an R-rated horror film could open like a summer blockbuster. Its success also helped revive other King adaptations. Warner Bros. had not been able to fund Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, until It became a hit. It Chapter Two, with James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader as the adult Losers, followed on September 6, 2019. In 2025, HBO premiered the prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, with SkarsgÃ¥rd back as Pennywise.
Trivia
- The 1990 ABC miniseries starring Tim Curry was Pennywise’s first screen appearance. This film was the clown’s first feature-length theatrical appearance.
- Before release, King announced that the film would carry the on-screen title “Part 1 – The Losers’ Club.” The finished film is titled It Chapter One on screen.
- To promote the film, Muschietti posted “missing” posters on Instagram for Derry children, including Betty Ripsom and Richie Tozier.
- The effects company Atomic Arts created the opening paper-boat sequence, a challenge because Muschietti and Chung had shot it in bright sunshine. Every one of its shots made the final cut.
- The film was the year’s fifth entry on Deadline‘s “Most Valuable Blockbusters” list.
- It set the UK opening-day record for a horror film, with $4.6 million.
Related links
- Pennywise and the Losers’ Club (characters)
- It (Stephen King franchise)
- It Chapter Two (2019 sequel)
- Andy Muschietti (director)
- Gary Dauberman and Cary Joji Fukunaga (writers)
- Bill Skarsgård and Jaeden Martell (cast)
- Stephen King (author)
- More Stephen King films: The Shining and Misery
