【Watch Black Panther Online】

Horror movies don't usually land at the box office like this.

It,Watch Black Panther Online the New Line/Warner Bros. adaptation of Stephen King's classic novel, is expected to end its opening weekend with $117.2 million at the box office. That's a staggeringlyhuge figure for any movie to open with, and a basically impossible one -- until now, apparently -- for an R-rated horror movie.

For context: Prior to It, the top opening weekend for an R-rated horror movie belonged to Paranormal Activity 3, which earned $52.6 million in 2011. The rest of that Top 10 list after Paranormal is populated by movies that opened at $41 million or less.

In other words: This is an unprecedented situation. R-rated horror movies just don't do this type of business. Hell, horror movies don't do this type of business, regardless of rating.

It did, however, and it broke multiple records in the process.

In addition to topping the opening weekend charts for R-rated horror, Italso has the largest horror opening for anyMPAA rating, the largest September debut, and the largest Fall season debut. If the estimate holds, it will also end the weekend as the third-largest debut of the year, justahead of Spider-Man: Homecoming's $117 million.

On top of all that: However the final weekend tally falls -- the current number is only an estimate -- it's already clear that Itearned more in its opening weekend than the other nine movies listed in the weekend's Top 10 combined. You could triple the total weekend take for those nine movies and still not quite scratch the Itestimate.

The question, then, is why did this happen?

King's work is certainly popular, and Ithas enjoyed a buzzy ride since its debut trailer first dropped in March. Many people who are old enough to see an R-rated movie now remember the beloved-yet-flawed TV adaptation of Itfrom the '90s, so there's nostalgia in play here as well.

But there's more to it than that.

We're just capping off one of the worst summer seasons in Hollywood history, with the lowest overall box office during that period in roughly two decades. In other words: movie buffs are bored AF. They've been aching for something new, and good, to see.

Itseems to have delivered.

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