Critics Trashed It, Audiences Showed Up Anyway: ‘Other Mommy’ Claws to $27.5M Box Office Win
The critics hated it. The audiences gave it a D. And it still conquered the box office.
Jessica Chastain’s horror flick “Other Mommy” clawed its way to number one this weekend with a $27.5 million debut across 3,365 North American theaters — far bigger than expected for a film with some of the worst reviews of the year. The global haul reached $45.2 million after opening in 50 international markets.
The Universal release, about a sinister supernatural creature terrorizing a young girl who believes it is her mother, earned a dismal D CinemaScore, joining an infamous club with films like “Hereditary.” But with a production budget of just $19 million, it is another textbook win for producer Blumhouse Atomic Monster. Universal’s distribution chief noted the crowd was evenly split between men and women, with two-thirds aged 18 to 34 — “a very good sign” for horror.
The weekend’s other big release was not so lucky. Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning,” starring Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook-whistleblower drama, stumbled to just $5.5 million from 2,606 theaters.
The strong weekend pushed the 2026 box office past $8 billion — two months earlier than last year. Horror, it turns out, is critic-proof: all it needs is a creepy premise and an October release date.
