Stephen King's It scares off The Exorcist to become highest-grossing horror ever

The adaptation of King’s demonic clown story crosses $500m mark at the global box office as studio fast-tracks sequel

Record-breaking … Bill Skarsgard in It.
Record-breaking … Bill Skarsgard in It. Photograph: Allstar/New Line Cinema

Stephen King's It scares off The Exorcist to become highest-grossing horror ever

The adaptation of King’s demonic clown story crosses $500m mark at the global box office as studio fast-tracks sequel

Stephen King’s It has broken the 44-year record set by The Exorcist to become the highest-grossing horror film of all time.

Warner Bros announced Thursday that the film, an adaptation of King’s novel about a child-devouring clown, had crossed the $500m (£399m) mark at the global box office, besting the $441m total made by The Exorcist. It had already set the record for a horror film in 17 territories, including the US, the UK and Australia.

“Crossing $500m is rarified air for any film, but for a horror film it is history-making, and we could not be prouder,” Sue Kroll, president of worldwide marketing and distribution at Warner Bros told Variety.

“The film-makers and cast did more than make a box-office hit,” she said. “They created a communal, must-see moviegoing event that has reverberated around the globe and is still going strong.”

However, this record-breaking performance comes with a hefty caveat: adjusted for ticket-price inflation The Exorcist’s total is still comfortably higher. In 2014, The Exorcist’s adjusted worldwide gross was calculated at $1.794bn. The highest-grossing film of all time when adjusted for inflation is Gone With the Wind, whose worldwide total of $400m equates to more than $3.4bn at 2014 prices.

The success of It has prompted the studio behind the film, New Line Cinema, to fast-track a sequel, which has already been given a September 2019 release date. Andy Muschetti will again direct the film, which will be set 17 years later, mirroring King’s original novel. It is not yet known who will play the adult versions of the first film’s child cast.