IT Movie Box Office Predictions Rise to a $60 Million Debut

Howdy, folks! It’s Sunday, which means it’s time for the horror haul, our regular round-up and one-stop-shop for all things horror. This week in horror news, Andy Muschietti's IT is on track to shatter box office records, the Stephen King adaptations keep rolling in with new Netflix release dates for Gerald's Game and 1922, Bruce Campbell snuffs out your dreams for Bubba Nosferatu, Eli Roth makes his commercial directorial debut with a Halloween Horror NIghts TV spot, and Tommy Wirkola teases Dead Snow 3 and Zombie-Hitler. Finally, there's also a campaign for George A. Romero to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and you should definitely donate to it because, damn, the man gave us zombies and honestly it's the least we can do.

For all the horror news we’ve already covered on the site this week, you can click through the links below. Then, check out other genre highlights from the week and finish it all up with a rundown of the week in horror movie trailers. For more, be sure to hit up our round-up of the best horror movies on Netflix, the best horror movies on Amazon Prime, and our regularly updated Horror Movie Release Dates Calendar. Thanks for tuning in, and sound off in the comments with your thoughts, questions, and other horror musings.

'IT' Tracking for $60+ Million Opening Weekend

it-pennywise-image — Image via New Line / Warner Bros.

Hey, guys. IT is going to make so much money. Andy Muschietti's adaptation of Stephen King's horror epic is poised to shatter records in its first weekend, and in a year that's already been rich with horror hits like Get Out, Split and Annabelle: Creation, IT might just become the biggest winner yet. What makes me so confident? Well, for one thing, I've seen it and it's fantastic. Full reviews are under embargo, but you need only check out the early reactions from critics on social media to see that this movie hits the right notes. But there's also the nostalgia factor, which can be mighty powerful at the box office (just ask Beauty and the Beast), and an unusual level of hype surrounding this movie, the likes of which are usually reserved for Star Wars and superheroes.

Early box office predictions saw the film on a path to $50 million opening weekend, but now that the first reactions have further stoked the fire, The Wrap reports IT is ballooning toward a predicted $60 million opening weekend. I have a theory it's going to do even better. Either way, it's a near certainty that IT will break records as the highest grossing September debut and, perhaps even more exciting, the biggest theatrical debut in horror history. To take that mantle, IT will have to top Hannibal's $58 million, and I would be truly shocked if it doesn't.

If you're counting down the days until IT lands in theaters, keep your hype levels up and get a taste of the terror with two songs from Benjamin Wallfisch‘s fantastic score.

Help George Romero Get the Walk of Fame Star He Deserves

doc-of-the-dead-george-romero — Image via EPIX

Does George A. Romero deserve a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? You're goddamn right he does. The godfather of zombies, the pioneer of independent filmmaking, and generally a big, giant huggable horror enthusiast who treated his fans and fellow filmmakers with a famed kindness, Romero is a horror legend and a filmmaking legend. But we all know that. What you probably didn't know is how damn expensive it is to get one of those iconic stars, which is why a campaign has been launched Indiegogo platform Generosity to help raise the costs associated with the Hollywood honor.

"As you may be aware, George A. Romero was nominated and selected to receive his, long over due, star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this October," reads the fundraising page. "The enormous costs associated with this honor are well over $60,000 (including the price of the actual star, and star reception events). We are turning to you who knew and loved George for help to complete our star completion fund."

The team behind the fund has already raised half of the costs, and the Generosity campaign is looking to generate the rest. Watch fellow horror legend Malcolm McDowell explain the campaign in the video below.

Bruce Campbell Is Out for 'Bubba Nosferatu'

This is such a bummer. Bruce Campbell is putting the kibosh on fan hopes for a proper Bubba Ho-Tep follow-up. Don Coscarelli's wildly hilarious and fearlessly weird horror comedy introduced Campbell as the King, Elvis Presley, stuck in a retirement home with no one who believes his true identity and where he battles against an ancient mummy sucking the souls from the nearly dead. Fans of the film have long waited for the sequel, Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She Vampire, which Coscarelli told me last year already had a script with Paul Giamatti attached. But Campbell didn't want to do it.

Now, Campbell has made it clear that he's done with the idea of a sequel altogether. The Ash vs. Evil Dead star dropped by EW Channel’s Entertainment Weirdly show to shatter your dreams. “I killed it,” he said. “I killed it for me. I told the creators that I didn’t want to dance around it anymore. I feel that the first one was a nice little gem and you don’t have to make a sequel for everything. Don Coscarelli, god bless him, go make it. You know, get somebody else. They had Ron Perlman at one point. Knock yourself out. I don’t want to stop you from making this, but I don’t want to [do it]. So, that one I’m just going to let go.”

Look Bruce, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. We're living in dark times, man, and we could use a little light in our lives and nothing makes me laugh harder than the absolute insanity of Bubb Ho-Tep.

All Stephen King, All The Time: 'Gerald's Game' and '1922' Get 2017 Release Dates

The year of Stephen King adaptations rages on! With The Mist, The Dark Tower and Mr. Mercedes behind us and IT just around the corner, Netflix has announced that there's another pair King adaptations headed our way before the year is out-- Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Gerald's Game and Zak Hilditch's spin on the King novella 1922.

Gerald's Game will drop first, landing on the screening service on September 29, and 1922 will follow, arriving on October 20.

Gerald's Game stars Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Henry Thomas, Carel Struycken, and Kate Siegel. Here's the official synopsis:

"When a harmless sex game between a married couple in a remote retreat suddenly becomes a harrowing fight for survival, wife Jessie must confront long-buried demons within her own mind - and possibly lurking in the shadows of her seemingly empty house. Among those she confronts are ghosts from her past and a vicious dog."

And here's the synopsis for 1922, which stars Thomas Jane, Molly Parker, Dylan Schmid, Kaitlyn Bernard, Brian D’Arcy James and Neal McDonough.

“1922 is based on Stephen King’s 131-page storytelling of a man’s confession of his wife’s murder. The tale is told from the perspective of Wilfred James, the story’s unreliable narrator who admits to killing his wife, Arlette, with his son in Nebraska. But after he buries her body, he finds himself terrorized by rats and, as his life begins to unravel, becomes convinced his wife is haunting him.”

'Dead Snow 3' Will Serve Zombie Hitler Realness

Since Nazis are currently hellbent on carving their way out of history and inserting themselves in contemporary culture, maybe it's the perfect time to take the piss out of them. Dead Snow director Tommy Wirkola has revealed he wants to shoot a third film in his Nazi zombie franchise, following the 2014 sequel Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, and to finish his trilogy, the writer-director is planning to zombify the biggest of all bads; Hitler himself.

“Just so you know, if you’re a fan of the Dead Snows, we’re hoping to make a third one in a few years,” Wirkola told EW. “We’ve got to finish the trilogy, so I’m very excited about that. We’ve got to finish what we started, all of us! We have some ideas. I think it’s natural to maybe put some of the story in South America, where a lot of the Nazis fled, of course. We’ve got to top what we’ve done before, we have to bring back Hitler as well. Zombie-Hitler. That just feels natural.”

Zombie-Hitler; sure, why not?

Eli Roth Makes His Commercial Directorial Debut with a Halloween Horror Nights TV Spot

Hostel and Cabin Fever director Eli Roth has made his commercial directorial debut with a fun TV spot for Universal Studios Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. The annual spooktastic event draws inspiration from horror classics, transforming the favorite films into maze and scare zone experiences where fans can walk through the iconic movies and TV shows. This year, Universal has lined up mazes inspired by American Horror Story, The Shining, and Saw, and Roth incorporates those titles in his TV spot.

Per the press release:

"With Roth‘s creative direction and filmmaking expertise, the compelling 30-second commercial becomes one of the most cinematic, horror-film-inspired, ―Halloween Horror Nights commercials ever created. ―The Mourning After spot follows a group of friends as they attend an unusual Halloween costume party and unfolds with a series of suspenseful twists and turns that begs for more.

Viewers will see an array of hidden references woven throughout the spot that pay tribute to the horror films and television-themed mazes guests will encounter at this year‘s ―Halloween Horror Nights events. These include FX‘s critically-acclaimed, Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning television series, ―American Horror Story, Stanley Kubrick‘s psychological horror film, The Shining and the upcoming SAW: The Games of Jigsaw movie."

Get a sneak peek at the commercial and a behind-the-scenes making of in the videos below: