Other Mommy Tops Box Office With Horror Debut

Universal Pictures' horror film "Other Mommy" led the North American box office this weekend after earning $27.5 million from 3,365 theaters, while "The Social Reckoning" opened with $5.5 million from 2,606 theaters. The results showed contrasting starts for two major releases targeting movie audiences.

According to studio estimates reported by ABC News, "Other Mommy" exceeded expectations with its domestic opening, while the film expanded into 50 international markets for a worldwide debut of $45.2 million. The movie follows a young girl who believes a sinister supernatural creature is her mother.

The horror release was produced with a reported budget of around $19 million and added another strong result for Blumhouse Atomic Monster, the production company behind "Backrooms" and "Obsession." Critics and audiences gave the film poor reviews, and CinemaScore assigned it a D+ rating.

Jim Orr, Universal's head of domestic distribution, said the audience turnout was broad after the opening weekend results. He noted that the audience split was even between genders and that about two-thirds of viewers were 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," Orr said.

Orr added that the broad audience response was a positive indicator for the film's performance. The movie remained the weekend's top release despite its mixed reception among critics and audiences.

"The Social Reckoning," written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, opened in second-tier position among major new releases with an estimated $5.5 million domestic debut. Sony Pictures' film follows a Facebook whistleblower who provided documents to a Wall Street Journal reporter.

The film had a reported production cost of around $30 million, excluding marketing and promotion, according to reports. Its performance was compared with "The Social Network," which Sorkin wrote and earned more than $224 million worldwide after opening with over $22 million 16 years earlier.

Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak's head of marketplace trends, said October releases can produce unpredictable audience reactions for films built around current topics.

"These movies that are topical in nature, sometimes they resonate with the culture, sometimes they don’t," Dergarabedian said.

Dergarabedian also compared "The Social Reckoning" with "Digger," which dropped 60% in its second weekend. The film also opened behind several returning releases in the domestic rankings.

Among holdovers, "Verity" placed second with $11.5 million, "Resident Evil" ranked third with $8.4 million and reached a domestic total of $138.5 million, while "Heart of the Beast" earned $7.1 million for fourth place. "The Odyssey" added $2 million from 560 North American theaters during its 13th weekend, bringing its domestic total close to $623 million.