Hollywood has spent the last week talking about how Digger’s very disappointing reviews may have affected its box office performance. Now, the powers that be are going to have the same conversation about The Social Reckoning after Aaron Sorkin’s long-awaited second take on Mark Zuckerberg underwhelmed at the ticket booth. Another movie, however, just proved that you don’t need praise from critics to put people in the seats.
The estimates for this weekend’s box office are here, and it’s great news for Other Mommy. The Jessica Chastain-led horror flick from Blumhouse is tracking to make $27,500,000 this weekend, only counting domestic grosses. That’s more than its rumored budget and a huge performance for a movie that’s getting absolutely crushed by critics. Much has been made about Digger's very divisive reviews and The Social Reckoning's bland to negative reviews, but they both look like Parasite comparatively. Other Mommy is currently sitting at 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the early audience scores aren’t strong either.
What it does have, however, is a target audience. Horror fans are always down to go to the movies, and they’re especially down during October. Without a ton of other scary options, it’s not a surprise they showed up in droves to support the film, to the point where it made more than three times the second highest grossing film. Here’s an estimated look at the top of the charts, per The Numbers.
Title |
Weekend Gross |
Domestic Gross |
Last Week |
Theaters |
1. Other Mommy |
$27,500,000 |
$27,500,000 |
N/A |
3,365 |
2. Verity |
$11,507,321 |
$53,886,372 |
1 |
3,572 |
3. Resident Evil |
$8,350,000 |
$138,525,000 |
2 |
3,085 |
4. Heart Of The Beast |
$7,100,000 |
$49,662,000 |
3 |
3,365 |
5. The Social Reckoning |
$5,500,000 |
$5,500,000 |
N/A |
2,606 |
6. Forgotten Island |
$4,500,000 |
$30,272,000 |
6 |
2,898 |
7. Primetime |
$4,014,003 |
$41,467,633 |
5 |
2,269 |
8. Digger |
$3,200,000 |
$14,433,000 |
4 |
3,321 |
9. Angel And The Bad Man |
$2,063,407 |
$2,063,407 |
N/A |
2,263 |
10. The Odyssey |
$2,000,000 |
$622,973,000 |
11 |
560 |
Most of the conversation this week is going to be around The Social Reckoning only making $5.5M, as well as Digger continuing to disappoint, but there is some good news to be had here outside of Other Mommy. Resident Evil is still holding on quite well and looks likely to top $150M in domestic grosses. That’s a really impressive number, especially when there were some initial questions about the reboot. Director Zach Cregger, who made Weapons and Barbarian, is really starting to look like he’s got a huge career ahead of him.
Verity also held up well enough after its debut weekend victory. Its sixty percent or so fall week-over-week definitely isn't what the studio dreamed up, but more than fifty million after ten days or so of box office returns is a really strong return for a book adaptation. It's also further proof that Colleen Hoover is becoming one of the most bankable writers, as her adapted works have steadily performed at the box office, especially It Ends With Us.
The Brad Pitt-fronted Heart Of The Beast also had another solid weekend. I’m sure the movie had higher aspirations when it was in the planning stages, but it just keeps hanging around at the box office and only fell about 1/3rd weekend over weekend. That’s a good sign for its staying power and likely means it’ll remain in the top ten for a few more weekends.
As for Digger and The Social Reckoning, I think their fates are a little bit different. Digger has a way bigger hill to climb from a financial standpoint, as its budget was reportedly over $100M, but it has plenty of enthusiastic defenders. Many critics hated it, but many others are calling it the best movie of the entire year. It could gather some momentum and still make a run at awards season. The movies that stick around and matter over the long haul tend to be the ones with zealous advocates, not ones everyone blandly likes.
The Social Reckoning, however, seems a little more stuck. In theory, its reviews are about the same as Digger, but in practice, the tone of them is very different. The movie hasn’t generated a ton of advocates, and even those who like it, seem to more casually like it. Its middling reviews probably mean it’s mostly out on awards season, and while it may eventually make back its budget on streaming, it seems unlikely we’ll get another Mark Zuckerberg movie anytime soon.
