Audiences hated Universal’s horror movie and showed up anyway, while Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook thriller opened to a quarter of ‘The Social Network.’
The weekend’s most telling number was not a gross. It was a grade. Universal’s Other Mommy opened at No. 1 with about $27.5 million despite earning a D+ CinemaScore, the lowest audience grade for a wide release since Megalopolis in 2024, while Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Reckoning finished fifth with just $5.5 million, below even the soft $6 million to $10 million range we projected going into the weekend. Moviegoers, in other words, were happy to be scared by something they did not like and uninterested in being informed by something critics did.
‘Other Mommy’ Pays Off Already
Rob Savage’s horror film, starring Jessica Chastain as a sinister presence in a young girl’s closet, played in 3,200 theaters and topped Universal’s $20 million projection. It also blew past the $17 million to $22 million range we cited in our preview. On a reported $19 million budget, it earned roughly 1.4 times its production cost in three days, the kind of math that makes horror the most reliable genre in Hollywood. The studio credits a trailer that ran in front of The Odyssey this summer with building awareness.
Word of mouth will be the test. With a 19 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and that D+ grade, a steep second-weekend drop is likely, but the film has already done its job.
Sorkin’s Tough Opening
The Social Reckoning is a different story. Sony’s Frances Haugen thriller, starring Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, opened below the studio’s $7 million expectation in 2,606 theaters. That works out to roughly $2,110 per location, and it is about a quarter of the $22.4 million The Social Network opened to in October 2010. The new film cost a reported $30 million, earned a B- CinemaScore and sits at 54 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The comparison that should worry Sony is from the same corner of the market. Alex Gibney‘s documentary Musk opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles and averaged about $17,225 per screen, roughly eight times The Social Reckoning‘s average. Tech-world stories can draw an audience in a handful of big-city theaters. Selling them to the whole country is harder, and that is a warning sign for Neon’s Artificial, due Christmas Day.
The ‘Digger’ Problem
In our preview, we noted that Sony was hoping strong word of mouth would give The Social Reckoning the legs Digger lacked. Neither film got them. Tom Cruise‘s Alejandro G. Inarritu satire opened to $7.5 million two weekends ago, his lowest debut since Lions for Lambs in 2007, and slid roughly 60 percent to about $3.2 million in its second weekend. Two ambitious, adult-skewing originals from major filmmakers have now stumbled on back-to-back weekends, and that is a pattern the industry will notice.
The Rest of the Top Five
Verity, last weekend’s winner, fell about 64 percent to $11.4 million for second place and a $53.8 million domestic total. (Our review called Anne Hathaway the reason to go.) Zach Cregger‘s Resident Evil added $8.3 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to roughly $138.5 million. Its $320.2 million worldwide gross makes it the highest-grossing film in the franchise. Brad Pitt‘s Heart of the Beast added $7.1 million for a $49.6 million domestic total.
In limited release, Chris Rock‘s A24 drama Misty Green opened to $85,716 in six New York and Los Angeles theaters.
Overall, the weekend took in about $88 million, up roughly 24 percent from the same frame last year, and the 2026 domestic year-to-date total has now passed $8 billion, up nearly 20 percent from 2025. Next weekend brings Street Fighter, Whalefall and Focus Features’ Sense and Sensibility.
