Fighting off mixed reviews and hyperbolic negativity on social media, New Line Cinema’s It: Chapter Two (read our review) still managed to annihilate the box office with $91M here in North America and $185M globally. While the film had initially been tracking to open north of $100M domestic, the negative buzz mixed with the conversations about the film’s length appeared to take a toll on the hotly anticipated sequel’s opening.

Even with double the budget of a reported $65M, the film has already crossed over into the profit zone and is targeting $500M-$750M worldwide. While this “franchise” was always pegged as a two-parter, there’s no world in which we don’t see a prequel giving us more backstory on the origins of the elusive Pennywise.

For note, Box Office writes that, “It: Chapter Two also scored the second-highest opening weekend ever for a horror film, solidly ahead of last fall’s Halloween reboot ($76.2M), the second-highest opening weekend for the month of September and the fifth-highest debut of all time for an R-rated film.” Not too shabby.

Because every 27 years evil revisits the town of Derry, Maine, IT: Chapter Two brings the characters—who’ve long since gone their separate ways—back together as adults, nearly three decades after the events of the first film.

Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (Mama) stars as Beverly Marsh, James McAvoy (Glass) as Bill Denbrough, Bill Hader (HBO’s “Barry,”) as Richie Tozier, Isaiah Mustafa (“Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”) as Mike Hanlon, Jay Ryan (“Mary Kills People”) as Ben Hanscom, James Ransone (“The Wire”) as Eddie Kaspbrak, and Andy Bean (“Swamp Thing”) as Stanley Uris.

Reprising their roles as the original members of the Losers Club are Jaeden Martell as Bill, Wyatt Oleff as Stanley, Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie, Finn Wolfhard as Richie, Sophia Lillis as Beverly, Chosen Jacobs as Mike, and Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben.