Other Mommy Tops Box Office With $27.5M as The Social Reckoning Struggles

The Jessica Chastain horror film Other Mommy earned $27.5 million in North American theaters during its opening weekend, surpassing studio expectations and capturing the top spot at the domestic box office according to studio estimates released on Sunday, October 11, 2026. Released by Universal Pictures across 3,365 locations, the supernatural thriller follows a sinister entity terrorizing a young girl who mistakes it for her mother. Despite pulling in a larger-than-expected opening audience, the film received dismal reviews from critics and audiences alike, landing a D+ CinemaScore that places it alongside Megalopolis and Hereditary in terms of audience polling.

Universal Pictures Releases and Blumhouse Production Budgets

Built on a production budget of approximately $19 million, Other Mommy delivers another commercial win for the horror genre and for producer Blumhouse Atomic Monster, which previously backed Backrooms and Obsession, as reported by eastbaytimes.com and abcnews.com. The film also expanded into 50 international markets over the weekend, pushing its global debut to $45.2 million. Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution, noted that the audience breakdown showed an even gender split, with roughly two-thirds of ticket buyers falling between 18 and 34 years old. No matter how you look at it, everybody turned out for it, Orr said, describing the broad demographic turnout as a very good sign.

The Social Reckoning Opens to $5.5 Million

While the weekend’s horror entry outperformed projections, Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning experienced a lackluster start at the box office, grossing an estimated $5.5 million across 2,606 North American theaters according to eastbaytimes.com and abcnews.com. Sony Pictures produced the film for roughly $30 million, excluding marketing and promotion costs. The narrative centers on a Facebook whistleblower who leaks incriminating documents to a Wall Street Journal reporter, featuring a cast that includes Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, and Jeremy Strong. Critics delivered mixed-to-negative reviews, and audiences awarded the picture a B- CinemaScore.

The release stands in stark contrast to Sorkin’s previous collaborative project, The Social Network, which was directed by David Fincher and opened to more than $22 million sixteen years prior before grossing over $224 million worldwide and collecting three Academy Awards from eight nominations. Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak’s head of marketplace trends, observed that October remains a month where studios test topical material that may or may not resonate with contemporary culture. You don’t always know what’s going to connect with audiences, Dergarabedian said, comparing the film’s trajectory to holdover title Digger, which dropped 60% in its second weekend.

Box Office Holdovers and Limited Releases

Several holdover titles outpaced The Social Reckoning on domestic charts. The Anne Hathaway psychological thriller Verity claimed second place with $11.5 million, marking a 64% decline from its opening frame. Resident Evil secured third place by adding $8.4 million to reach a domestic total of $138.5 million. The Brad Pitt survival thriller Heart of the Beast followed in fourth place with $7.1 million. Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey returned to the top ten in its 13th weekend, grossing $2 million from 560 North American screens—including 12 IMAX 70mm locations—to bring its domestic total just under $623 million.

Limited releases also entered the marketplace over the weekend. The Cannes Palme d’Or winner Fjord collected $124,000 across four screens, while Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour Elon Musk documentary Musk brought in $68,900 from four locations. Chris Rock’s Misty Green grossed $85,716 across six locations through Sunday, October 11, 2026. Across the industry, the annual domestic box office crossed the $8 billion threshold on Friday, October 9, 2026, running up over 19% compared to the previous year but remaining approximately 8% behind 2019 figures according to Rentrak data.