Box office: “Other Mommy” takes first place, “Social Reckoning” brings in $2.15 million

After major openers like “Obsession,” “Backrooms” and “Resident Evil,” the horror genre’s reign at the box office in 2026 shows no signs of slowing down. And with Halloween just around the corner, it makes sense that this momentum would continue on Friday as the supernatural and unsettling thriller “Other Mommy” easily took the top spot.

The Universal film, produced by Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, grossed $12.6 million in 3,365 North American theaters on Friday. It’s a good start for the Jessica Chastain-led horror film, which cost $18 million.

Based on Josh Malerman’s 2024 novel “Incidents Around the House,” the horror film follows a paranormal entity who takes the appearance of a young girl’s mother and begins haunting their home. Chastain plays Ursula, the real mom, but also the titular “Other Mommy,” a terrifying entity who resembles Ursula. Jay Duplass plays Russell, Ursula’s husband, and Arabella Olivia Clark plays Bela, her daughter. The cast also includes Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed, Karen Allen, Sean Kaufman and many more. “Other Mommy” is expected to add $28 million by Sunday.

New film “The Social Reckoning” landed in fourth place Friday with $2.15 million from 2,606 North American theaters. The film is expected to gross $6 million domestically this weekend.

Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to 2010’s “The Social Network” (which grossed $224 million worldwide and won four Academy Awards), the corporate drama has received mixed reviews since its premiere earlier this week; Variety Guy Lodge called the film “a fairly entertaining, quite intelligent and quite true examination” that serves “as a reminder that ‘The Social Network’ was both Sorkin’s best literary achievement and…his least characteristic.”

“The Social Reckoning” follows the 2021 Facebook leak by whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison). Jeremy Strong plays Mark Zuckerberg and Jeremy Allen White plays Jeff Horwitz, the Wall Street Journal reporter who digs through thousands of pages of internal documents, resulting in his Pulitzer Prize-winning report, “The Facebook Files.” Bill Burr, Betty Gilpin and Billy Magnussen also star.

On Friday, Amazon MGM’s psychological thriller “Verity” landed in second place, grossing $4 million. Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s best-selling book of the same name and starring Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett and Dakota Johnson, the film is expected to gross $14.2 million by Sunday, bringing its domestic total to $56.6 million.

Just ahead of “The Social Reckoning,” Columbia Pictures’ “Resident Evil” brought in another $2.32 million on Friday, good enough for a third-place finish. The Zach Cregger-directed zombie horror is targeting another $8.2 million for the weekend, bringing its cumulative domestic gross to $138.37 million. Austin Abrams stars as a medical courier in the video game adaptation who must deal with a zombie outbreak while making a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital.

Finally, in fifth place, was “The Heart of the Beast” from Paramount Pictures. The Brad Pitt-led adventure film grossed $1.96 million on Friday and is expected to gross another $6.91 million by Sunday, bringing its cumulative gross to $49.47 million. Directed by David Ayer, “The Heart of the Beat” stars the actor as a retired veteran who makes a 58-mile trek to safety after he and his fighting dog survive a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness.