Audiences Graded Other Mommy a D-Plus and Made It No. 1 Anyway

Nobody liked it much. That did not stop them buying tickets first.

Other Mommy, the Jessica Chastain horror film directed by Rob Savage, won the North American weekend of 9 to 11 October with an estimated $27.5 million, according to studio estimates reported on 11 October. Moviegoers polled by CinemaScore gave it a D+, USA Today reported, and critics were harsher still. Information verified through 22 October 2026.

A D+ is not a shrug. It is opening-night audiences telling their friends, in effect, stay away. Yet the film opened at No. 1, in 3,365 North American theatres and 50 international markets, for a worldwide debut of about $45.2 million. Something other than approval sold those first tickets.

A hook you can explain in one sentence

The premise travels fast. An eight-year-old girl, Bela, encounters a sinister entity that takes the form of her mother. Chastain plays twin roles — Ursula, a distracted working mother, and the demonic entity that takes on her face to come after Bela, played by Arabella Olivia Clark, with Jay Duplass as the father.

You get it instantly. No lore. No homework from earlier films.

The film is adapted from Josh Malerman’s 2024 novel Incidents Around the House and was produced through Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, with James Wan among its producers, ScreenRant reported. Creepy Catalog put the production cost at about $18 to $19 million. Cinema Express gave a similar figure, around $19 million.

Cheap matters here. At that price, a strong first weekend does most of the work before word of mouth can do its damage.

Timing helped too. An October horror release, weeks before Halloween, with a star’s face doubled on the poster. Creepy Catalog argued that Halloween timing, Chastain’s star power, Wan’s branding and the doppelgänger hook brought out the 18-to-34 crowd, roughly two-thirds of the audience. That is that outlet’s account, not an audited breakdown.

Week two told the truth the grade had promised

Then the fall came, and it was steep.

Per Variety figures cited by ScreenRant, the film was projected to end its second weekend with $8.3 million domestically, a drop of about 70% from its debut. ScreenRant said that would make it the ninth-biggest second-weekend drop for a Blumhouse film, and the fourth Blumhouse title in roughly two years to land in that top 10, after AfrAId at minus 72.7%, Wolf Man at minus 70.2% and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 at minus 69.7%.

Critics had it at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, with verified audiences at 48%, ScreenRant reported. Creepy Catalog put the critics’ score in a 16 to 19% range, audiences near 46%. The small differences reflect scores moving as more reviews came in. The direction does not move at all.

And still — success, on the only ledger the studio banks.

ScreenRant noted the film’s domestic total had reached about $44.8 million, close to an estimated $45 million break-even point, with a global gross above $78 million. Creepy Catalog gave the worldwide figure as roughly $78.8 million, split between $44.9 million domestic and $33.9 million overseas. On an $18 million production budget, before marketing costs are counted, that is profitable several times over, as Creepy Catalog put it.

Disliked. Front-loaded. Paid for. All three at once.

The prestige film in the same weekend nobody queued for

Now look at fifth place.

Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning grossed $5.5 million in North America on its opening weekend, USA Today reported, citing Rentrak studio estimates released on Sunday 11 October. It debuted at No. 5, below Verity, Resident Evil and Heart of the Beast. Cinema Express put its global debut at $9 million, after $3.5 million overseas.

The comparison that stings is with its own predecessor. The Social Network opened with $22.4 million in 2010 and at No. 1, unadjusted for inflation. The new film made roughly a quarter of that.

It is not a sequel in the usual sense. USA Today described it as a companion piece: where the 2010 film was a character study of Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s founding, this one is a journalism thriller. Mikey Madison plays Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower who worked with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, played by Jeremy Allen White, on reports about the company knowing its platform can cause harm. Jeremy Strong plays Zuckerberg, now a supporting figure.

Critics gave it 54% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, against 96% for The Social Network. Better than Other Mommy‘s 17%. Nowhere near enough, on a reported $30 million budget, to make $5.5 million look like anything but a miss. Audiences liked it more than the horror film — other coverage of the same weekend put its CinemaScore at B-minus — and stayed home anyway.

Analysis: This weekend is a clean lesson in what opening weekends actually measure. They do not measure satisfaction. They measure pre-purchase pull — a concept, a season, a face, a brand — before anyone in the queue has seen a frame. Other Mommy had pull and no satisfaction, so it spiked and fell 70%. The Social Reckoning had a famous title, a serious subject and middling reviews, and its pull was weak from the first Friday. Horror’s economics forgive the first pattern: spend little, open big, accept the drop. A $30 million adult drama has no such cushion. It needs people to keep coming in week three, on recommendation. Nothing in these numbers suggests that is happening. The lesson is narrower than “audiences have changed.” It is about price. At $18 million, being disliked is survivable. At ten times that, being merely respected is not.

Sources

1. USA Today — “Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Social Reckoning’ flops at box office” (11 October 2026): https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2026/10/11/the-social-reckoning-movie-box-office-aaron-sorkin/92204841007/
2. Creepy Catalog — “Jessica Chastain’s Other Mommy Got a D+ CinemaScore and Still Made $78.8 Million” (19 October 2026): https://creepycatalog.com/jessica-chastains-other-mommy-got-a-d-cinemascore-and-still-made-78-8-million/
3. ScreenRant — “17% RT Horror Movie Earns Blumhouse’s 4th Historic Box Office Drop In Two Years” (18 October 2026): https://screenrant.com/other-mommy-box-office-week-2-domestic-drop/
4. Cinema Express — “After Digger, The Social Reckoning becomes latest box-office disappointment” (12 October 2026): https://www.cinemaexpress.com/english/news/2026/Oct/12/after-digger-the-social-reckoning-becomes-hollywoods-latest-box-office-disappointment