‘Other Mommy’ Tops Box Office With $27.5 Million Debut; Sorkin’s ‘The Social Reckoning’ Flops at $5.5 Million
Jessica Chastain's horror film 'Other Mommy' opened to $27.5 million domestically despite brutal reviews, while Aaron Sorkin's 'The Social Reckoning' managed only $5.5 million in fifth place against a $30 million budget.
Horror ruled the box office again this weekend. “Other Mommy,” the campy horror film starring Jessica Chastain that critics ripped apart ahead of its release, debuted at No. 1 domestically with an estimated $27.5 million — while “The Social Reckoning,” Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to “The Social Network,” collapsed into fifth place with just $5.5 million, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The numbers tell two very different stories. “Other Mommy,” directed by Rob Savage and based on Josh Malerman’s novel “Incidents Around the House,” was made for an estimated $18 million and added $17.7 million internationally for a $45.2 million worldwide opening — comfortably in the black on production costs alone, EW reports. The film’s domestic haul alone nearly matched its production budget.
“The Social Reckoning,” by contrast, managed only $5.5 million against an estimated $30 million budget, per box office tracker Rentrak, and added just $3.5 million internationally. The film, which swaps Jeremy Strong in for Jesse Eisenberg as the Facebook founder, drew mixed reviews and landed in fifth place domestically.
The genre gap
Both films were among the year’s worst-reviewed wide releases, but genre appears to have made the difference: critics generally agree that character-driven dramas struggle against spectacle, while horror keeps overdelivering. According to EW, horror has been one of the most profitable genres of 2026 — two of the year’s most profitable films, factoring in their minuscule budgets, were horror titles: “Obsession,” made for under $1 million and grossing $263.4 million domestically, and “Backrooms,” made for $10 million with $197.5 million in domestic ticket sales.
The weekend’s top three were all genre titles. The Anne Hathaway–Dakota Johnson thriller “Verity” took second place with $11.4 million in its sophomore weekend, and “Resident Evil” placed third with $8.3 million in its fourth week.
The rest of the chart was grim. Tom Cruise’s “Digger” dropped 60 percent in its second weekend to $3.2 million domestically, bringing its worldwide total to just $35.3 million against a reported budget of $125 million to $180 million.
Reporting based on coverage by Entertainment Weekly.
