A horror film starring Jessica Chastain took the top spot at the North American box office this weekend. Meanwhile, a high-profile Sony release opened to a far smaller audience than the studio would have hoped for.
Horror Beats Expectations
Universal’s “Other Mommy” brought in an estimated $27.5 million from 3,365 theaters, according to studio figures released Sunday. That was a bigger crowd than had been anticipated. The film follows a young girl who is menaced by a sinister supernatural creature that she believes is her mother. Rob Savage directed, and Jason Blum was among the filmmakers at the premiere, held Thursday at the Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood in Los Angeles.
The opening is notable partly because the film was not well received. Reports on the weekend said that both critics and general audiences gave it poor marks. Even so, moviegoers turned out in numbers large enough to put it at number one. The result suggests that the appeal of a seasonal horror release, and the pull of a name like Chastain’s, can outweigh weak word of mouth, at least in a debut weekend.
A Rough Start for ‘The Social Reckoning’
“The Social Reckoning” opened to about $5.5 million, a lackluster result for a film that Sony had positioned as a topical release. Showbiz411 described the debut as a spectacular bomb and noted that the film fell well short of what a major studio release is expected to earn. Its critique also said the movie lacked a shocking twist or revelation to draw viewers in.
The disappointment is especially striking given Sony’s year. The studio’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” became the highest-grossing film of the year, bringing in more than $2 billion worldwide. According to Showbiz411, that leaves Sony with both the biggest hit and the biggest flop of the year.
Why October Is a Gamble
Paul Dergarabedian, a box office analyst, said that October is a period when studios tend to take creative risks, and those bets do not always pay off. He observed that films tied to current cultural conversations sometimes strike a chord with audiences and sometimes do not. This weekend’s results reflect that unpredictability: a poorly reviewed scary movie drew a crowd, while a timely drama struggled to attract one.
For Universal, the win is a welcome boost heading deeper into the fall season, a stretch when horror often performs well. For Sony, the weekend is a reminder of how far apart a franchise blockbuster and a more topical, adult-oriented project can land in the marketplace.
What Comes Next
Attention will now turn to how each film holds up in its second weekend. Horror releases with negative reviews often fall steeply after opening, so “Other Mommy” may face a sharp decline. “The Social Reckoning” has little room to fall from its small start, and it will need a significant change in audience interest to recover. With several high-profile releases still scheduled before the end of the year, theaters will be watching closely to see which titles can pull audiences back in.
Source: ClickOnDetroit (with additional reporting from Showbiz411)
