Based upon Stephen King’s iconic novel, IT has made quite an impact in the box office. The movie is breaking record after record. Recently the movie crossed the $500 million mark according to the announcement by Warner Bros. In the domestic market the movie earned a whopping $270.4 million.
As reported by Heroic Hollywood, the worldwide marketing and distribution president, Sue Kroll regarding the issue said that “Crossing $500 million is rarified air for any film, but for a horror film it is history-making, and we could not be prouder. The filmmakers and cast did more than make a box office hit; they created a communal, must-see movie going event that has reverberated around the globe and is still going strong. We congratulate Andy Muschietti, the extraordinary producing team, and everyone involved in ‘It’ on reaching this amazing milestone.”
One thing that we have seen lately that effective and well thought off marketing plan helps a movie go a long way. The original IT movie was launched in 1990 and is the reason why many of us are afraid of clowns today. Warner Bros over here played their cards well. The audience of 1990 were still kids and teenagers. Now with the reboot after 17 years the audience was much older and wanted to see a new and technologically advanced version of Pennywise the clown. In addition, the company also carried out an extensive market strategy in PR events, public pranks and well monitored social media page that always kept on announcing the latest news and updates before the movie had even released.
The real challenge that Warner Bros would now face is of attracting the same number of people for the sequel. While the movie has received positive reviews, it still failed to articulate the back story of Penny Wise the clown. Why the clown appears after every 27 years still remains a mystery and the typical ending may also disappointed fans. Whether these questions will be answered in the sequel are still unknown but we will be interested in the strategy that Kroll uses to attract the audience this time around.
