Women led Hollywood’s box office again this weekend. Jessica Chastain’s new horror film Other Mommy opened at No. 1, and Verity, the Colleen Hoover thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, held on at No. 2 in its second weekend.
‘Other Mommy’ Opens Big, Despite the Critics
Universal’s Other Mommy earned an estimated $27.5 million in North America from Friday, October 9 through Sunday, October 11, according to Comscore figures. It added international ticket sales for a global opening of about $44.2 million. The film cost less than $20 million to make, so it has already more than doubled its budget in a single weekend.
Chastain plays two roles: Ursula, a mother, and the sinister entity that takes on her appearance. Rob Savage (Host, The Boogeyman) directed the film, and horror veteran James Wan produced it. The story is adapted from Josh Malerman’s 2024 novel Incidents Around the House.
Critics have been far less kind than audiences. Universal and Blumhouse didn’t screen the film for reviewers ahead of release, and it currently has an 18% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers came anyway. The opening is a reminder of Chastain’s long track record in horror, from 2013’s Mama to her role as the adult Beverly Marsh in It Chapter Two.
‘Verity’ Keeps Its Grip
After topping the charts on its opening weekend, Verity slipped to second place with an estimated $11.4 million. That pushes its domestic total past $50 million. The Amazon MGM Studios release, a $40 million production, had already passed $70 million worldwide before the weekend began.
Hathaway stars as Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer hired to finish a series by bestselling author Verity Crawford. It’s the latest big-screen adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, and it shows how strongly her readers turn up at theaters.
A Rough Start for ‘The Social Reckoning’
The weekend’s other new wide release had a much quieter debut. Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, a follow-up to 2010’s The Social Network, opened in fifth place with about $5.5 million. The Sony film stars Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, Mikey Madison as a Facebook engineer and Jeremy Allen White as a Wall Street Journal reporter. Reviews have been mixed.
This Weekend’s Top 5
- Other Mommy (Universal): $27.5 million (opening)
- Verity (Amazon MGM Studios): $11.4 million
- Resident Evil (Sony): $8.3 million
- Heart of the Beast (Paramount): $7.1 million
- The Social Reckoning (Sony): $5.5 million (opening)
With Halloween three weeks away, Other Mommy is well placed to stay in the conversation, and Verity keeps showing that female-led thrillers can draw a crowd.
Box office figures are weekend estimates and may change when final numbers are reported.
