Stephen King's It breaks highest-grossing horror record at the US box office

Bill Skårsgard’s demonic clown slaughtered the competition, taking more than double the previous record for a horror film’s opening weekend

It, the big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a child-eating clown, shattered US box-office records over the weekend, earning $117.2m from 4,103 locations, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Not only is It now the largest ever opening for a horror movie and the largest September opening of all time, the film more than doubled the earnings of the previous record holders. Before this weekend, Paranormal Activity 3 had the biggest horror opening with $52.6m from 2011, and the highest September debut was Hotel Transylvania 2’s $48.5m in 2015.

Related: Stephen King horror It: Pennywise, the Losers and Stranger Things – discuss with spoilers

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