As the theatrical market heads into a quieter stretch, Universal/Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s “Other Mommy,” the latest in-house original from a horror studio looking to get back to prime form, and Sony/Columbia/Alcon’s “The Social Reckoning,” a companion piece to Aaron Sorkin’s 2010 film “The Social Network” that is expected to open more than 50% below its predecessor, are expected to lead this weekend.
Both are expected to provide modest support to help lift the box office above the deep slumps we’ve seen in past autumns.
“Other Mommy,” which stars Oscar winner Jessica Chastain as both a concerned mother and a vicious doppelganger who is haunting her daughter, comes at a time when Blumhouse-Atomic Monster is basking in its connection to the biggest horror hits of the year, “Obsession” and “Backrooms.” Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum boarded “Obsession” as an executive producer after Focus Features acquired the indie hit at TIFF last year, while Atomic Monster founder James Wan was a producer on “Backrooms.”
Blumhouse-Atomic Monster has also enjoyed franchise success over the past year with sequels to “The Black Phone,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “Insidious.” But the big issue that the studio has faced going back to 2024 is the sudden loss of its ability to consistently bring in audiences for original high-concept horror. Movies like “Wolf Man,” “Drop” and “The Woman in the Yard” were among the original titles offered by Blumhouse in 2025 that weren’t huge flops due to their low budgets, but failed to kickstart new franchises the way “The Black Phone” did in 2022.
The good news is that “Other Mommy” might turn that around. Current projections have Rob Savage’s film earning a $24 million domestic opening that would be on par with the $23.6 million opening of “Black Phone,” with theatrical sources seeing an opening closer to $30 million if critical and/or early audience reception is strong. “The Black Phone” legged out to a $90 million domestic/$161 million global final total during the late summer three years ago.
“Other Mommy” will face some IP-driven horror competition as Halloween draws closer in the form of Sony’s well-holding “Resident Evil” and the DC Studios horror film “Clayface,” so the potential legs have yet to be determined. But the trailers that have played in front of films like “Resident Evil” and “The Odyssey” showing Chastain as a creepy, supernatural figure chasing after a little girl in dark hallways and a ball pit have clicked with horror fans in a manner reminiscent of Ethan Hawke’s villainous turn in “The Black Phone,” so signs are pointing to a solid run.
That’s not the case for “The Social Reckoning,” which is currently tracking for an opening similar to the $8 million start of last weekend’s high-profile bomb “Digger” from approximately 2,500 locations. That would be less than half of the $22.4 million opening that “The Social Network” earned from 2,776 locations in October 2010.
As “Digger” demonstrated, the vast majority of films that explicitly tackle politics and current events are struggling to find an audience since the pandemic. That trend looks to continue with “Social Reckoning,” which takes an even more caustic look at Mark Zuckerberg and recounts The Wall Street Journal’s 2021 investigative report that leaked Meta’s internal documents revealing it willfully turned a blind eye to the harmful effects of its social media platforms.
“The Social Reckoning” carries a reported net budget of around $40 million co-financed by Alcon, and with the billions Sony has made with “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” this summer, it is in position to absorb any losses this drama may incur. But if it indeed takes a swift exit from the box office charts, it will speak to how much audience tastes have changed compared to when “The Social Network” came out, as it gets harder for filmmakers and studios to find an audience for movies that speak to our grim present without some sort of other hook to mitigate — or at least accompany — such sober messaging.
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