Following major openings like “Obsession,” “Backrooms” and “Resident Evil,” the horror genre’s 2026 box office reign shows no sign of slowing. And with Halloween right around the corner, it makes sense that momentum continued Friday as the supernatural, unnerving thriller “Other Mommy” easily claimed the top spot. The Universal movie, produced by Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, generated $12.6 million from 3,365 North American theaters on Friday.
It’s a strong start for the Jessica Chastain-led horror, which carries an $18 million price tag. Based on Josh Malerman’s 2024 novel “Incidents Around the House,” the horror film follows a paranormal entity that takes on 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 looks identical to Ursula.
Jay Duplass plays Ursula’s husband Russell and Arabella Olivia Clark plays Bela, her daughter. The cast also includes Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed, Karen Allen, Sean Kaufman and more. Fellow new release “The Social Reckoning” landed in fourth place on Friday with $2.15 million from 2,606 North American theaters.
The movie is expected to make $6 million domestically through the weekend. Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to 2010’s “The Social Network” (which grossed $224 million globally and went on to win four Oscars), the corporate drama has been afflicted with mixed reviews since its premiere earlier this week; Variety’s Guy Lodge called the film “a diverting-enough, clever-enough, true-enough examination” that serves as “a reminder that ‘The Social Network’ was both Sorkin’s best writing achievement and… his least characteristic.” “The Social Reckoning” follows Facebook’s 2021 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, which culminated in his Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting, “The Facebook Files.” Bill Burr, Betty Gilpin and Billy Magnussen also star.
Amazon MGM’s psycho-thriller “Verity” landed in second place on Friday, grossing $4 million. Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book of the same name and starring Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett and Dakota Johnson, the film looks to add $14.2 million by Sunday, bringing its domestic total to $56.6 million. Coming in right ahead of “The Social Reckoning,” Columbia Pictures’ “Resident Evil” pulled 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 contend with a zombie outbreak while making a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital Finally, in fifth, was Paramount Pictures’ “The Heart of the Beast.” The Brad Pitt-led adventure film grossed $1.96 million on Friday and should pull in 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 navigates a 58-mile trek to safety after he and his combat dog survive a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness.
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