The Social Reckoning had a subdued North American box office debut as Other Mommy, a low-budget horror film starring Jessica Chastain, took the weekend’s top spot with $27.5 million.
Released by Universal Pictures, Other Mommy collected the estimated sum from 3,365 cinemas in the US and Canada. Its worldwide opening reached $45.2 million after the film launched in 50 international markets.
The film follows a young girl terrorised by a supernatural creature she believes to be her mother. Despite poor reviews from critics and audiences, it was made for about $19 million, giving it a potentially strong start for the horror genre and the Blumhouse Atomic Monster production company.
Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution, said the audience was evenly split between men and women, with about two-thirds aged between 18 and 34.
“No matter how you look at it, everybody turned out for it. It wasn’t just one particular demographic,” Mr Orr said. “That usually is a very good sign.”
The Social Reckoning struggles to find an audience
The Social Reckoning, the weekend’s other major release, opened in fifth place with an estimated $5.5 million from 2,606 North American cinemas.
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, the Sony Pictures film concerns a Facebook whistleblower who passes incriminating documents to a Wall Street Journal reporter. It stars Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong.
The result was well below that of The Social Network, which Sorkin wrote and David Fincher directed. That film opened to more than $22 million 16 years ago, went on to take more than $224 million worldwide and received eight Oscar nominations, winning three.
The Social Reckoning received mixed-to-negative reviews, while audiences awarded it a B-minus CinemaScore. Its production cost was reported at about $30 million, excluding marketing and promotion.
Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak’s head of marketplace trends, said the film’s topical subject matter had not guaranteed a connection with viewers.
“These movies that are topical in nature, sometimes they resonate with the culture, sometimes they don’t,” he said. “You don’t always know what’s going to connect with audiences.”
He compared the result with Digger, which saw its takings fall by 60% in its second weekend.
Overall North American box office remains ahead of last year
Anne Hathaway’s psychological thriller Verity finished second with $11.5 million, down 64% on its opening weekend. Resident Evil was third on $8.4 million, taking its domestic total to $138.5 million, while Brad Pitt’s survival thriller Heart of the Beast was fourth with $7.1 million.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey returned to the top 10 during its 13th weekend after screening again at 12 IMAX 70mm locations. It added $2 million from 560 cinemas, bringing its domestic total close to $623 million.
In limited release, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Fjord made $124,000 from four screens. Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk documentary Musk, which runs for almost four hours, took $68,900 from four locations, while Chris Rock’s Misty Green earned $85,716 from six.
The domestic box office passed $8 billion on Friday and is more than 19% higher than at the same point last year. Rentrak said the figure remained about 8% below the comparable total for 2019.
