It will take more than a creepy clown with a red balloon to scare off these professional clowns.
Ahead of the September release of a new film iteration of Stephen King's best-selling book "It," the World Clown Association says it isn't afraid of losing gigs.
"It's a nonissue," Pam Moody, president of the WCA, told CNBC. "I honestly don't expect any repercussions from the movie 'It.'"
Moody said that there have been countless movies and television shows to feature scary clowns since the first 'It' movie came out in 1990 and that, in her more than 20-year career as a clown, she has only encountered one person with a true clown phobia.
"That's pretty good odds," she said.
The WCA, which has upwards of 3,000 members in 30 countries, has only seen business impeded on one occasion — a surge of creepy clown sightings last year.
The creepy clown sightings began in early summer 2016 in South Carolina and have grown in frequency through the month of October. In September 2016, more than a dozen people were arrested for taking part in the clown pranks or for making false reports to police.
Even McDonald's was forced to distance itself from the frenzy by decreasing the public appearances of its mascot Ronald McDonald.
Moody said several professional clowns in the organization saw business slow, but the majority of entertainers were able to continue their craft.
On one occasion last year a WCA member arrived early for a party and while she was waiting in her parked car she was surrounded by four police officers, Moody told The Hollywood Reporter. She said someone in the neighborhood had called in a clown sighting.
"Last year was unexpected and totally different," Moody said. "But I don't really see that as being a huge issue now."