Other Mommy Leads Box Office With $27.5M Debut

Universal Pictures' horror film Other Mommy topped the North American box office this weekend after earning $27.5 million from 3,365 theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday. The Jessica Chastain-led film exceeded expectations despite negative reviews.

The film follows a young girl who believes a sinister supernatural creature is her mother. According to studio estimates, Other Mommy had a production budget of about $19 million and reached a global debut of $45.2 million after opening in 50 international markets.

Universal's head of domestic distribution Jim Orr said the audience was evenly divided by gender, with about two-thirds of viewers between 18 and 34 years old.

"No matter how you look at it, everybody turned out for it. It wasn’t just one particular demographic. That usually is a very good sign." said Jim Orr, Universal's head of domestic distribution.

Orr's comments followed the film's opening weekend performance, which placed it among recent horror releases that generated strong theatrical returns despite mixed audience responses.

The other major new release, The Social Reckoning, earned an estimated $5.5 million from 2,606 North American theaters. The film was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and centers on a Facebook whistleblower who provided documents to a Wall Street Journal reporter.

The Social Reckoning follows the earlier success of The Social Network, which opened with more than $22 million and earned over $224 million worldwide. According to reports, the new Sony Pictures release cost around $30 million to produce before marketing expenses.

Rentrak head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian said October releases can involve risks because audience responses to topical stories vary.

"These movies that are topical in nature, sometimes they resonate with the culture, sometimes they don’t. You don’t always know what’s going to connect with audiences." said Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak's head of marketplace trends.

Dergarabedian compared The Social Reckoning's performance with Digger, which dropped 60% in its second weekend. The film also opened behind several returning titles.

Anne Hathaway's psychological thriller Verity ranked second with $11.5 million, while Resident Evil placed third with $8.4 million and reached $138.5 million domestically. Heart of the Beast followed in fourth place with $7.1 million.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey returned to the top 10 during its 13th weekend, earning $2 million from 560 North American theaters. The annual domestic box office surpassed $8 billion on Friday and was up more than 19% from the previous year, according to Rentrak.