20 Huge Horror Movie Hits NOBODY Expected
13. It (2017)
Even though the trailers for 2017's adaptation of Stephen King's It racked up huge view counts on YouTube, time and time again, it's been shown that this doesn't always translate to box office gravy. And while it was a fair bet that the $40 million horror film would be an easy hit and gross, say, $300 million, pretty much nobody expected it to become a verifiable genre blockbuster.
After earning $123.4 million domestically in its opening weekend - more than double most analysts' estimates - It went on to end its run with $704.2 million worldwide. This not only made it the highest-grossing horror film of all time, unseating The Sixth Sense, but made It the third highest-grossing R-rated movie ever at the time.
For context, despite being an R-rated horror film about a child-murdering clown, It outgrossed far more accessible films like Justice League, Transformers: The Last Knight, Kong: Skull Island, Dunkirk, and War for the Planet of the Apes.
Though It Chapter Two didn't replicate the same level of success - topping out at $473.1 million - the duology netting almost $1.2 billion combined on a budget of $120 million is utter madness.