Horror Film Other Mommy Tops Box Office as Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning Opens Far Below Its Predecessor

Hollywood's most closely watched weekend of the autumn produced two opposite results for two very different bets. A low-budget horror film that critics largely rejected took the top spot, while a prestige drama that borrowed the brand of one of the best-reviewed films of the 2010s opened to roughly a quarter of its predecessor's debut. The split, based on preliminary Sunday figures, says more about what theatrical audiences will pay for in 2026 than either film's quality does.

The numbers

Universal, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster's *Other Mommy* opened first with an estimated $27.5 million from 3,365 theaters, according to The Numbers' weekend chart. Sony's *The Social Reckoning*, Aaron Sorkin's follow-up to *The Social Network*, took about $5.5 million from 2,606 theaters and placed fifth. In between, *Verity* slipped to second with $11.5 million in its second weekend, lifting its ten-day total to $53.9 million. All figures are studio estimates and can shift when actuals are published on Monday.

The gap in expectations matters as much as the gap in grosses. According to World of Reel, *Other Mommy* earned more than $3.5 million in Thursday previews and was reported to have cost $19 million to make, so its opening weekend alone exceeded its reported production budget by roughly 45 percent. The same outlet puts the reported budget of *The Social Reckoning* at $40 million. Against that figure, a $5.5 million start is a hole that the film will struggle to fill domestically, even with international release and later streaming revenue still to come. Budget figures vary between reports and should be read as indicative.

A horror hit without reviews

*Other Mommy* is directed by Rob Savage and stars Jessica Chastain in a dual role, adapting Josh Malerman's novel *Incidents Around the House*, per World of Reel. The film was not screened for American critics before release and sits at 17 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, according to the same report. Neither fact stopped it from topping the chart.

Two mechanics explain the result. The first is marketing reach: the trailer was attached to Christopher Nolan's *The Odyssey*, which has grossed about $623 million domestically after 87 days, according to The Numbers. Few horror films advertise to an audience that large. The second is the genre's economics. Horror is cheap to make, front-loaded by design and increasingly sold on a recognisable star and a simple hook rather than on review quotes. Withholding a film from critics is a deliberate trade: it sacrifices the long tail that good reviews create in exchange for an unfiltered first weekend.

The cost is visible in what comes next. World of Reel expects a second-weekend drop of about 70 percent, a steep fall that would turn a $27.5 million opening into a total that is a modest multiple of it rather than a long run. For a film that cost $19 million to make, that can still be a healthy outcome, because the opening covers the budget before marketing and exhibitor splits are counted.

A sequel to a cultural moment

*The Social Reckoning* faced a harder question. SlashFilm noted before release that Sony was projecting a domestic opening of $8 million to $13 million, a range it called soft, against the $22.4 million that *The Social Network* opened to in 2010 on its way to $225 million worldwide. The actual result of about $5.5 million fell below even the low end of that range, and is about a quarter of the original's debut in unadjusted dollars.

The film is billed as a companion piece. Jeremy Strong plays Mark Zuckerberg in place of Jesse Eisenberg, with Mikey Madison as whistleblower Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White as reporter Jeff Horwitz. David Fincher, who directed the original, is not involved, and Sorkin's record as a director is thinner: SlashFilm points to *Molly's Game*, which made $59 million worldwide on a $30 million budget.

Reception was middling rather than disastrous. World of Reel lists a 59 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and refers to a B- CinemaScore, the audience grade collected on opening night. That combination is not the profile of a film that builds through word of mouth, which SlashFilm had identified as the film's route to legging out beyond its opening. Thursday previews of roughly $650,000 already pointed to a muted weekend.

Why the split matters

The two openings point to a market in which the middle is the hardest place to be. SlashFilm argues that theatres never fully recovered from the pandemic and that awards-season dramas increasingly head straight to streaming. A $40 million adult drama needs a large, older audience to show up in the first few days, and the weekend suggests that audience is not automatically available even with a famous title attached. Nostalgia for a film from 2010 did not translate into urgency to see a new one in a cinema.

The same weekend offers a second data point. *Digger*, the Tom Cruise awards hopeful, took $3.2 million in its second frame, bringing its total to $14.4 million, according to The Numbers. World of Reel recorded $8 million for the film the previous weekend, which implies a fall of about 60 percent. Adult-oriented prestige titles are being asked to prove themselves immediately, and the window for doing so is short.

None of this means the drama category is dead. *Verity* has reached a $53.9 million total, and *Resident Evil* has passed $138 million after 24 days. The more specific lesson is about positioning. Films with a clear, easily advertised hook, whether a monster, a franchise or a spectacle, are travelling well. Films that depend on critical enthusiasm to build an audience are exposed when the enthusiasm is only lukewarm.

What to watch

Three things will clarify the picture over the next fortnight. The first is the actual Monday figures, which could move either film by a few percent. The second is *Other Mommy*'s second weekend: a drop near the 70 percent World of Reel anticipates would confirm it as a front-loaded release, while a smaller one would show that audience reaction is better than its critic score implies. The third is international performance and the streaming window for *The Social Reckoning*, which is where Sony can still recover part of its investment.

The takeaway for studios is a familiar one with a sharper edge: cheap genre films can still break out on marketing alone, and expensive adult dramas cannot rely on a famous title.