I’m trying to figure out who the biggest loser in the success of IT, and it has to be Sony, right? They opened The Dark Tower back in August, it flopped horribly, and pretty much nixed any hope of a sequel or a TV series. Then IT comes along one month later, makes a ridiculous amount of money by showing that people will happily pay for a Stephen King adaptation that’s rich and atmospheric, and now The Dark Tower is kind of worthless instead of being able to piggyback off IT’s success. Tom Rothman must want to eat his own head right now.

And the pain isn’t going to stop anytime soon (or, if you’re at Warner Bros, the jubilation). Andy Muschietti’s horror film (and yes, it’s a horror film; don’t try to reclassify it just because you’re uncomfortable with a horror movie making bank) just crossed $500 million worldwide. It hasn’t even been out for a month, but it’s dominating and shows few signs of slowing down. Additionally, if Warner Bros. is able to get the Blu-ray out before the holidays (which I think is their plan), they’re going to make even more money since IT is a thrill ride instead of a downer horror movie where you feel sad afterwards (for example, I love The Mist, but you will never get me to re-watch that movie).

The question now becomes how high can IT climb? It already holds the #1 spot for highest-grossing horror film of all-time, and domestically, it’s currently the fifth-highest grossing film of 2017. The film has already blown past all expectations, and I’m eager to see how much more it can make. It’s a great achievement for the horror genre, and hopefully it shows other studios that with the right artistic talent behind the camera and a solid premise, an R-rated horror film can be dominant at the box office.

IT 2 opens September 6, 2019.