Audiences did not like it much, but they showed up anyway. Other Mommy is heading for No. 1 at the domestic box office. After earning about $13 million on Friday, previews included, from 3,365 screens, the supernatural horror film is projected to open around $28 million, according to TheWrap’s weekend report. Variety’s earlier Friday tally was slightly lower, at $12.6 million.
A Horror Pedigree and a Modest Price Tag
The film comes from Universal and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster and is based on Josh Malerman’s novel. It follows an eight-year-old girl and a sinister figure she calls her “Other Mommy.” It reportedly cost about $19 million to make, a modest budget for a wide horror release.
The source is Malerman’s 2024 novel Incidents Around the House, from the author of Bird Box. Rob Savage, who directed Host and The Boogeyman, made the film from a screenplay by Nathan Elston, a writer on Succession. James Wan, the producer behind the Saw, Insidious and Conjuring franchises, produced through Atomic Monster. Jessica Chastain plays both the girl’s mother and the entity that imitates her. The cast also includes Jay Duplass as the father, Arabella Olivia Clark as the girl, Bela, and Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed and Karen Allen in supporting roles.
Why the Grade Matters
Reception is the concern. The film holds a 20% critics score and a 47% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and opening-night audiences gave it a D+ CinemaScore. A grade that low often points to weak word of mouth, which can lead to a steep drop in the second weekend. TheWrap still expects the film to reach break-even by the end of its run.
The tension between a strong opening and a weak reaction is a familiar one in horror. Genre fans tend to buy tickets early, driven by trailers and the names attached, and they are often the first to react to a film that does not deliver what the marketing promised. Savage had publicly teased that the film contains around 50 jump scares, and the trailer, which first played before select screenings of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, leaned heavily on distorted movements and sudden frights. Whether the movie lived up to that promise is the question that the grade suggests many viewers answered negatively.
The Rest of the Chart
- Verity: about $12.5 million in its second weekend, down 61%, for a ten-day total near $54.8 million against a $40 million budget.
- Angel and the Badman: about $2.4 million from 2,263 locations, with a 23% critics score and a B+ CinemaScore.
TheWrap notes that total weekend estimates are on track to come in below $90 million, the second straight soft weekend for new releases. These are early estimates based on Friday, and final numbers arrive on Monday.
Measuring It Against Last Weekend
The comparison with the previous frame is instructive. A week earlier, Verity opened with $32.6 million, a figure that Other Mommy is not expected to match. The thriller then lost 61% of its audience in its second weekend, which illustrates how quickly a strongly debuting adult-oriented film can lose its momentum. That pattern is the risk now facing Other Mommy, since films with poor audience grades tend to fall at least as fast.
On the other hand, Other Mommy has an advantage in cost. At about $19 million, it needs far less to turn a profit than Verity, which carries a $40 million budget. Horror films also tend to earn a meaningful share of their money overseas and in later home viewing, which can improve the final tally. Other Mommy opened internationally in several markets before the domestic weekend, including Belgium, Australia and New Zealand, with more territories to follow later this month.
A Weak Field of New Arrivals
The opening looks stronger when set against the rest of the weekend’s new releases. Variety reported that The Social Reckoning debuted to $2.15 million on Friday, and Angel and the Badman is expected to finish near $2.4 million, which leaves Other Mommy far ahead of its direct competition. The gap explains why a film with a D+ grade can still take the top spot: the field around it was thin. It also helps explain why total ticket sales are projected to land below $90 million, since no other new title opened with enough force to lift the weekend.
For Chastain, the film marks a return to supernatural horror more than a decade after Mama, another film in which a ghostly maternal figure terrorizes children. The parallel was noted by horror outlets when she joined the project, and it gives the marketing a familiar hook, even if the result has divided audiences.
A Calendar Built for Scares
Universal moved the film from its original May 8 date to October 9, a change that put it in the middle of the Halloween season. The decision is easy to explain. October is the strongest month of the year for horror releases, and a film that begins in the first week of the month has several weeks of seasonal demand to draw on. Even a poor audience score can leave room for a decent run if viewers are looking for a scary evening out.
The soft overall weekend suggests that moviegoers are waiting for the next large releases. With a dip expected in total ticket sales, the result gives the studio a modest win, but the long-term performance will depend on how many people choose to watch the film after the first weekend, and on whether the D+ grade spreads to a wider audience.
- TheWrap: 'Other Mommy,' 'Social Reckoning' Struggle as Box Office Slows Down
- Variety: Box Office, 'Other Mommy' Spooks Up $12.6 Million on Opening Day, 'The Social Reckoning' Debuts to $2.15 Million on Friday
- Boxoffice Pro: Long Range Forecast, Oct. 9, 2026
- Fangoria: Jessica Chastain Is One Malevolent Mother in New Other Mommy Trailer
- Dread Central: Other Mommy Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
- Universal Pictures: Other Mommy
- The Numbers: Other Mommy (2026)