LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — ‘It’ looks set to reignite the flagging US box office with predictions it could make as much as $60 million in its opening weekend following months of hype.
When the film’s original trailer was released in March, it broke records after having a reported 197 million views in its first 24 hours, despite not having any big A-list names attached to the project.
“It scared so many people in the 80s – their childhood was based off of ‘It’,” explained the film’s lead actress Sophia Lillis.
“Since it’s coming back everybody remembers ‘It’ so it has this big fan base around it but I think the basis is nostalgia.”
‘It’ is originally a novel by classic horror writer Stephen King. In the 1990s it was adapted for television as a mini-series with ‘Rocky Horror’ actor Tim Curry playing the film’s antagonist – the creepy child-eating clown Pennywise, who manifests himself as a child’s greatest fear.
The story in the novel is split between two time eras – the 1950s in which the Losers Club, who are being stalked by Pennywise, are young teens and the 1980s when they are grown up.
The film addresses the young days of the characters but shifts in time 30 years to the 1980s.
“Personally I grew up in the 80s,” explained ‘It”s director Andy Muschietti.
“It’s an era that means a lot to me. It’s connected to so many experiences of life which are very vivid in my mind and in my heart because it’s a time of life that you really live emotions in your skin and it’s also the part of your life where you stop being a child and start becoming an adult which is exactly what happens to The Losers.”
The gang of child actors were given “80s bible”s to learn what it was like to live during the time period and the young stars embraced the era and its culture.
“Not being on our phones a lot and going out and learning how to use those 80s bikes that are really hard to use actually helped us bond, helped us be together,” explained Lillis. “This is like why we’re really close to each other because we actually talked to each other.”
‘It’ goes on release in the U.S. on September 8.