Will IT Chapter Two Scare Hustlers Away from the Top of the Box Office?

IT Chapter Two opened last weekend and gave the box office a much-needed shot in the arm with a $91 million take. Pennywise and The Losers Club should be collecting another very fat stack of cash on their second week out, but STX also has the buzzed-about Hustlers set to arrive, which could represent some very major competition. At the same time, Warner Bros. is releasing what is (or at least was) a clear awards season hopeful with The Goldfinch.

Despite the competition, IT Chapter Two is expected to come out on top once again with between $40 and $45 million. The sequel hasn’t been met with the same level of critical praise as its predecessor and it also hasn’t matched the same heights at the box office up to this point. Still, the Andy Muschietti-directed Stephen King adaptation has already crossed the $200 million mark worldwide and, with its take over the weekend, will cement itself as a huge hit nonetheless.

Next up will be Hustlers. Despite coming in second, this is going to be a majorly needed win for STX. The studio has suffered a string of flops, such as Uglydolls and Poms this year alone. The Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu fronted ensemble crime drama won’t suffer the same fate, though. The movie, which centers on a group of strippers and is based on real-life events, earned high praise coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival (currently boasting a 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). That praise will carry it to a debut between $20 and $26 million, based on estimates. That’s a win for director Lorene Scafaria and money in the bank for STX.

Related: IT Chapter Two Was Almost Split Into 2 Movies

On the other side of the coin, we’ve got The Goldfinch. The high-profile adaptation of the novel of the same name was positioned by Warner Bros. as an awards season contender. Directed by John Crowley and boasting a cast led by Ansel Elgort and Nicole Kidman, the movie has been brutalized by critics thus far. As of this writing, it’s rocking a very poor 25 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s expected to earn between $7 and $12 million, but we’d expect it to come in on the low side of those projections. Considering the $40 million production budget, that’s a rough start, to say the very least of it.

Rounding out the top five should be a couple of holdovers in the form of Angel Has Fallen and Good Boys. Both movies have done well for Lionsgate and Universe, respectively, and should nab another $3 to $4 million each. Be sure to check out our full list of weekend box office predictions below and check back with us on Sunday for the weekend estimates. Figures used in this report were provided by Box Office Mojo.

Topics: IT 2, Hustlers, Box Office