The ‘Welcome to Derry’ Premiere Was HBO’s Third-Largest Hit

HBO’s style dramas are sometimes a giant deal, and to this point, Welcome to Derry is not any exception.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, the primary episode of the It prequel amassed 5.7 million cross-platform viewers over three days. It’s the third-biggest sequence debut in HBO historical past, coming behind the pilots for 2022’s House of the Dragon and The Last of Us in 2023. Of their first days alone, Dragon had practically 10 million viewers, whereas Final had 4.7 million viewers and gained a lot extra over the three-day interval. (The finale to Final’s first season alone nearly reached the identical numbers as Dragon’s premiere.)

Most Welcome to Derry viewers caught onto the premiere after its preliminary Sunday night time airing. Regardless of the present’s stable critiques, the episode itself caught consideration on-line with its bloody ending, and it helped that it premiered shortly earlier than Halloween. That twist took lots of people abruptly—together with HBO, because it seems—and can possible get seats in butts for the rest of the season.

Since Halloween fell on a Friday this 12 months, the second Derry episode launched on HBO Max forward of ordinary Sunday timeslot. HBO additionally launched the present’s intro, made by manufacturing studio Filmograph. In a separate THR interview, government producer/director Andy Muschietti referred to as the title sequence a “descent into dread” because it options Pennywise luring in youngsters or observing chaotic occasions all through the city’s historical past. The sequence “displays our need to point out the large catastrophic occasions” referenced in Stephen King’s novel, continued Muschietti, and additional leaned into Derry being “a spot that’s seemingly healthful, however there’s one thing dreadful beneath the floor.”

You possibly can learn extra in regards to the sequence’s creation here, and it’ll play earlier than new episodes of Welcome to Derry each Sunday.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and all the things it’s worthwhile to learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.