IT Movies Ranked: Which Film Is the Best?

In my IT movies ranked list, It (2017) beats It Chapter Two on four tests: how well each film frightens, how it treats the seven main characters, how well Pennywise works on screen and how well the story holds together. This is opinion, judged from what happens on screen, and the only figures I borrow are budgets, grosses and runtimes, which come from Box Office Mojo.

The list is short because there are only two IT films. Both are directed by Andy Muschietti, both follow a group of outcast friends in the town of Derry, Maine, and both feature Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. The 1990 miniseries, It (1990), in which Tim Curry played the clown, and the HBO series IT: Welcome to Derry (2025) are television, so they sit outside this list. Searches for "all 3 IT movies ranked" expect a third entry, but no studio or trade source has announced one, so any talk of an it chapter three is still just talk.

I weigh four things: scares, the Losers Club, Pennywise and shape. Scares matter most, since this is a horror series and the best set pieces are the ones that use a character's private fear. The losers club it group comes second, because the franchise depends on whether you believe seven people would stay friends for 27 years. Pennywise comes third, and shape comes last, which means pacing, length and whether the ending earns its place.

It 2017 is the stronger film, in my opinion, because it keeps one engine running from start to finish. It opens in October 1988 with Georgie Denbrough chasing a paper boat made by his brother Bill into a storm drain, and the following summer Bill refuses to accept that Georgie is gone. That refusal drives everything, and it gives the seven kids a reason to be in the same place. Each of them then sees visions tailored to their own fears, which is a rule I admire, because it means every scare says something about the person on screen.

The young cast does a lot of the work. Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs and Wyatt Oleff play Bill Denbrough, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon and Stanley Uris, and the banter feels like real friends rather than a writers room. Nicholas Hamilton's Henry Bowers also gives the kids a human threat to fear when Pennywise is not around. At 135 minutes, the film is long for a horror release but never feels it. It was released in the US on September 8, 2017, and Box Office Mojo reports about $720 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.

It Chapter Two ranks second because it has better actors than ideas, in my opinion. Set 27 years later, it opens in 2016 with a hate crime against a gay man, and it is soon clear that the clown is feeding again. Mike, the one Loser who never left Derry, phones his old friends and calls them home to keep their childhood promise. Stanley takes his own life rather than return, and I think that choice gives the early scenes real weight.

The adult ensemble is the reason to watch. Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone and Andy Bean play the grown Losers, and Bill Hader's Richie is the best single performance in either film, as far as I am concerned. The child cast return as the young versions, so the memories keep the first film alive. The trouble is length. At 169 minutes, the film runs a full 34 minutes longer than the first, and the scares lose some of their sharpness. Filming used Port Hope, Ontario, as Derry, according to Global News, which gives the town a believable look. The film was released in the US on September 6, 2019, and Box Office Mojo shows about $473 million worldwide on a $79 million budget.

Both films adapt Stephen King's novel, and the full comparison with the book sits on its own page, it book vs movie. This ranking judges only the two films.

Start with It (2017), because Chapter Two leans on what the first film builds, and then continue straight into the sequel. If you want the exact sequence, the it movies in order page lays it out, and where to watch it lists the services in the US, UK and Australia. For the full list of films and the numbers behind them, see the it movies hub and the it box office page.