It

Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for It?

Directed by Andy Muschietti, with Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis leading the cast, It was produced by New Line Cinema with a confirmed budget of $35,000,000, placing it in the low-budget category for horror films as part of the It Collection.

With a $35,000,000 budget, It sits in the mid-range of studio releases. Marketing costs for a wide release at this level typically add $30–60 million, putting the break-even point near $87,500,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• 1941 (1979): Budget $35,000,000 | Gross $94,900,000 → ROI: 171% • Two for the Money (2005): Budget $35,000,000 | Gross $30,526,509 → ROI: -13% • Ghost Ship (2002): Budget $35,000,000 | Gross $71,142,361 → ROI: 103% • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022): Budget $35,000,000 | Gross N/A • Lion of the Desert (1981): Budget $35,000,000 | Gross $1,502,136 → ROI: -96%

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Practical Effects, Prosthetics & Makeup Horror productions invest disproportionately in practical effects — prosthetic applications, animatronics, blood and gore effects, and creature suits. A single hero creature suit can cost $50,000–200,000.

▸ Atmospheric Production Design & Cinematography Creating dread through environment is essential. Abandoned locations must be secured and dressed, lighting rigs designed for shadow and tension, and sets built to enable specific camera movements and reveals.

▸ Sound Design & Score Horror is arguably the most sound-dependent genre. Foley work, ambient textures, frequency manipulation, and jump-scare stingers require specialized sound designers working with unconventional techniques.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs Key roles: Jaeden Martell as Bill Denbrough; Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom; Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh; Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier

DIRECTOR: Andy Muschietti CINEMATOGRAPHY: Chung Chung-hoon MUSIC: Benjamin Wallfisch EDITING: Jason Ballantine PRODUCTION: New Line Cinema, Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures, KatzSmith Productions FILMED IN: United States of America

Box Office Performance

It earned $328,874,981 domestically and $390,891,028 internationally, for a worldwide total of $719,766,009. Revenue was split 46% domestic / 54% international.

Break-Even Analysis

Using the industry-standard 2.5x multiplier (P&A + exhibitor shares of 40–50% + distribution fees), It needed approximately $87,500,000 to break even. The film surpassed this threshold by $632,266,009.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Revenue: $719,766,009 Budget: $35,000,000 Net: $684,766,009 ROI: 1956.5%

Profitability Assessment

VERDICT: Highly Profitable

It was a clear financial success, generating $719,766,009 worldwide against a $35,000,000 production budget — a 1956% ROI. After estimated marketing costs, the film still delivered substantial profit to New Line Cinema.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Franchise: It is part of the It Collection. Its box office performance strengthened the franchise and likely accelerated subsequent installments.

The outsized success of It likely influenced studio greenlight decisions for similar horror projects.

Records: Crossed the $500M worldwide threshold, placing it among the top-grossing films of 2017.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

The project was in ongoing development since 2009. The proposed film adaptation has gone through two major phases of planning: initially with Cary Fukunaga from 2009 to 2015, with the early contributions of screenwriter David Kajganich, and with Andy Muschietti, with Fukunaga remaining in some capacity due to prior screenplay contributions.

Production designer Claude Paré commented that apart from 29 Neibolt Street, that the other main component of Muschietti's It were both the sewers and the cistern, to which Muschietti and himself worked every morning for roughly three months observing, looking at the plans and attempting to figure out what was the best pattern for themselves on stages they had access to a rather precise stage, though having to make profit as much as they could, of what they had. Paré worked extensively with Muschietti to imagine a haunted house that unleashes a presence that is discovered to be a character in its own right. The exterior of 29 Neibolt Street was built in Oshawa, Ontario, with the interior scenes being filmed in a former hospice. "There were real clowns and fake clowns. There was lots of work put into dressing mannequins and putting some heads on them with masks and wigs and so on. Some of them were real people, so they start moving as you see in the movie."

Paré later explained that his team looked at the location, with them later having kids climb up and down to which later resulted in the construction of the well on the stage, which connects Pennywise's tunnel, giving access to the tunnels, which in turn gives access to the cistern: "which is the giant set that we're shooting now, and in which Pennywise has his wagon and on top of which there's a pile of all the clothes and toys of the dead kids over the many centuries." The vortex of dead children was also a creation of Muschietti and Paré, with floating being a "metaphor for dying," according to Muschietti.

▸ Filming & Locations

270x202px|left|thumbnail|Port Hope, Ontario|Port Hope had undergone a number of changes to transform it into the town of Derry. Production designer Mara LePere-Schloop went to Bangor, Maine, to scope out locations including the Thomas Hill Standpipe, the land running alongside the Kenduskeag Stream that in It is called The Barrens, it was confirmed on March 31, 2015, and the Waterworks on the Penobscot River. LePere-Schloop said during her tour that they were hoping to shoot some scenes in the city and possibly get some aerial shots, although currently the leading locations for the majority of filming for the movie are in Yonkers, New York, and in Upstate New York. Principal photography was confirmed to have begun in Toronto, with an original shooting schedule occurring from June 27 to September 6, 2016.

On July 8, 2016, Port Hope had undergone a number of changes to transform it into Derry; Port Hope Municipal hall is now Derry Public Library, The Port Hope Tourism Centre is now a City of Derry office, Ganaraska Financial is now Montgomery Financial, Gould's Shoes store front on Walton Street changed to a butcher shop, The Avanti Hair Design store front changed to Tony's Barber Shop, an empty storefront at 36 Walton Street changed to Reliance Cleaners, Queen Street Tattoo store front changed to Derry Scoop, a statue of Paul Bunyan was erected in Memorial Park, US flags now hang in place of Canadian flags downtown, and Port Hope Capitol Theatre had appeared to be showing Batman (1989) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), thus confirming the film's setting of 1989.

On July 11, 2016, preliminary shooting took place in Port Hope Town Hall, Memorial Park cenotaph, Queen Street between Walton and Robertson streets and the Capitol Theatre. On July 12, 2016, filming occurred between the intersection of Mill and Walton street, Walton Street bridge, and in front and behind 16–22 Walton Street and Port Hope Town Hall.

▸ Visual Effects & Design

Nicholas Brooks was the overall visual effects supervisor and the visual effects company Rodeo FX worked on most of the visual effects on It, completing 95 shots for the film. Rodeo FX was tasked with creating a number of CG assets to either enhance or even completely replace Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise, amongst others being the giant abandoned cistern within the heart of Pennywise's lair. Atomic Arts highlighted the challenges in creating the paper boat sequence, as Muschietti and Chung shot it in bright sunshine.

Producer Barbara Muschietti stated that It would use computer-generated imagery as a support tool in every circumstance; never as an element standing on its own in regard to its relationship with practical effects, to which she stated, "In every film, in this day and age, there is some CG, but we will use it as little as possible." Andy Muschietti spoke of It containing a small amount of CGI, with much of Pennywise being Skarsgård and his face: "The rest it's a shape-shifting monster, and I wanted to bring that to the screen, when he's basically trying to throw everything he has at them.", while signifying the importance of design and execution in the eternal discussion of practical versus CG. spoke of the concepts about the look of Muschietti's film that evolved during production, and while continuing it in the DI, the idea that a lot of the film takes place in fairly high-key situations, not the kind of dark, shadowy world some horror films exist in. Nakamura said, "It's a period piece. It's set in a small town that sort of looks like this pleasant place to be, but all this wild stuff is happening!"

▸ Music & Score

On March 23, 2017, Benjamin Wallfisch was announced as the composer of Its score. Wallfisch stated that Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Alan Silvestri, as well as Dave Grusin's composition for The Goonies (1985) were largely influential in the score of It, as he felt so passionate about those "big thematic style of scoring", albeit at the same time wishing to go beyond the idea that it would be a purely orchestral and adventurous score. According to Wallfisch, he had to develop a theme for Pennywise which included finding and creating music that could infect all the other melodies as there are several themes in the film but the Pennywise score is a very quiet and whispered childlike tune using very high strings. Wallfisch spoke of Pennywise's second theme, inspired by Skarsgård's portrayal,

▸ Marketing & Release

The official website for It debuted on August 31, 2016, introducing a marketing campaign and interactive layout to promote the film. The website streamed the third trailer as well as containing a gallery, videos, and the 8-bit game "It: Enter the Sewer". On January 31, 2016, Muschietti, on his Instagram, posted a sketch that is thought to be the precursor to Pennywise's final look, to celebrate the pre-production getting underway. Beginning from July 11, 2016, Muschietti posted a variety of missing person posters of children within the Derry area, including Betty Ripsom, Richie Tozier, Paul Greenberg, Jonathan Chan, and Tania McGowan.

The first official image for It debuted on July 13, 2016 to promote It, introducing the first look at Skarsgård's Pennywise The Dancing Clown, Thomas Freeman of Maxim wrote that "Skarsgard in full, terrifying costume, he's clearly got what it takes to fill King's most macabre, nightmare-inducing creation." Chris Eggertsen of HitFix responded positively stating the image to be "an appropriately macabre look that doesn't deviate too radically from the aesthetic of Curry's Pennywise dare I say, a more creepily seductive look to Skarsgard's version that was absent from Curry's interpretation."

On August 16, 2016, Entertainment Weekly released the full costume image of Skarsgård's Pennywise to promote It, Dave Trumbore of Collider noted that "This one's going to divide some folks. It's nowhere near as baggy or colorful as the one Tim Curry donned but the new version certainly seems to have a lot more thought and intent behind its creation." Jonathan Barkan of Bloody Disgusting called the image one of "drawing attention and curiosity". Barkan then stated "I don't know if it's morbid curiosity or hopeful wishes but the overall response to his face and makeup seemed to be quite positive!" On March 11, 2017, New Line Cinema showcased its promotion of It, by releasing a teaser trailer and a scene at the South by Southwest festival.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 12 wins & 49 nominations total

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CRITICAL RECEPTION

right|It received praise for its performances, direction, screenplay, cinematography, and musical score. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 387 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Well-acted and fiendishly frightening with an emotionally affecting story at its core, It amplifies the horror in Stephen King's classic story without losing touch with its heart." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 85% and a 64% "definite recommend".

Vanity Fair, Salon, and IndieWire, among others, pegged it as an Oscar contender. Sinead Brennan of RTÉ, awarding four out of five stars, described It as a "film that is just beautiful to look at, while you sit on the edge of your seat waiting for the next scare." She praised the performances, cinematography, and production value, whilst speaking of Skarsgård as "chilling perfection", whose "manic energy and presence which brings a level of unease and intensity to proceedings that is just incredible.", Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun-Times spoke most highly of Skarsgård's performance, with him writing "Skarsgård's Pennywise shows up only sparingly, and that's a wise choice.