Universal/Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s “Other Mommy” is leading the box office with a $27.5 million opening on a mid-October weekend where it is the only film making more than $12 million while Sony/Columbia/Alcon’s “The Social Reckoning” is making less than a third of the opening weekend of its famed predecessor, “The Social Network.”
Made on a $19 million budget, “Other Mommy” stars Jessica Chastain as a mom who discovers that there is a vicious doppelganger of herself that is haunting her daughter. The film should be able to clear its low break-even point theatrically as it has also grossed $17.6 million overseas from 50 markets for a $45 million global start.
But “Other Mommy” has been saddled with poor critical and audience reception including a D+ on CinemaScore, the lowest grade recorded by the audience poll since Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” two years ago.
Weak audience scores have been followed by steep box office drops, as is the case this weekend with Warner Bros./Legendary’s “Digger” and Amazon MGM’s “Verity,” which both got C+ CinemaScores and are seeing 60+% second weekend drops in this frame. Along with the bad reviews, “Other Mommy” will face plenty of Halloween horror competition in the weeks ahead from films like the strong holdover “Resident Evil” and the upcoming DC Studios “Batman” villain title “Clayface.”
Meanwhile, “The Social Reckoning” is DOA with just $5.5 million grossed domestically this weekend, putting it at No. 5 on the box office charts just ahead of the third weekend of Universal/DreamWorks’ animated flop “Forgotten Island” with $4.5 million. By comparison, Aaron Sorkin’s previous film about Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, “The Social Network,” opened to $22.6 million in the fall of 2010.
As seen with “Digger” last week, it has been a heavy lift for studios to sell audiences on films about current events or tough issues like climate change or social media misinformation, and the mixed reception for “The Social Reckoning” isn’t helping with a B- on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoesscores of 56% critics and 73% audience. Fortunately for Sony, the film has a reported net budget of around $30 million with Alcon as co-financier, and the recent success of films like “Resident Evil” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” will easily cover any losses they take on this film.
With the weak word-of-mouth hurting the legs of several of this month’s films, and Hurricane Isaias keeping moviegoers in the southeast U.S. out of theaters on Friday and Saturday, theatrical business is slowly declining as this weekend’s overall total is sinking to an estimated $88-90 million, down from last weekend’s $100 million.
The good news is that this is still 24% up from the $71 million overall total posted on this weekend a year ago, when Disney’s “Tron: Ares” led the box office with $33 million and no other films earned more than $10 million with the sixth weekend of “The Conjuring: Last Rites” still in the top 5. It’s an example of how having more films in theaters, something exhibitors have demanded for years, can reduce the damage during box office slowdowns.
Among holdovers, “Verity” has dropped to $11.5 million in its second weekend for a domestic total of $53.8 million. Amazon MGM says Hurricane Isaias played a role in the 64% drop as “Verity” has seen an overperformance in southeastern states over the past week, though tepid reception over the film’s downer ending from moviegoers who wanted more of a steamy thriller is likely also a factor. Globally, “Verity” stands at $113 million against a reported $40 million budget after two weekends in theaters.
Sony/TriStar’s “Resident Evil” is in third with $8.3 million in its fourth weekend in theaters while also opening to $40.6 million in China this weekend. That brings the film’s global total to $139 million domestic and $320 million worldwide. Paramount’s “Heart of the Beast” is in fourth with $7.1 million to bring the $80 million thriller to a $49.8 million domestic and $131 million global total.
Farther down the charts, Angel’s remake of the 1947 John Wayne western “Angel and the Badman” starring Tommy Lee Jones and Zachary Levi is struggling with just $2 million from 2,263 locations, putting it just inside the top 10. The film has a B+ on CinemaScore and 23% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with 13 reviews logged.
Finally, “Digger” made just $3.2 million domestic and $9.6 million worldwide in its second weekend, bringing its global box office total to $35.3 million. While Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s bleak Brechtian satire is finding a growing number of cinephiles championing it on Letterboxd and social media, it is still on course to become one of the worst box office bombs in recent memory.
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