Sorkin's Facebook drama The Social Reckoning stumbles as horror Other Mommy leads

Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Reckoning", Sony's drama about Facebook, is heading for a weak opening at the North American box office, while the horror film "Other Mommy" is set to top the weekend chart. According to Friday estimates reported on October 9 and 10, 2026, "The Social Reckoning" took about $650,000 from preview screenings and about $2.3 million on its opening Friday, putting it on course for roughly $6 million over the three-day weekend from 2,606 cinemas, at the low end of forecasts of about $7 million. "Other Mommy" was projected to open with about $27.5 million from 3,365 screens, above the roughly $20 million expected earlier in the week. All figures are early estimates and may change when actual weekend totals are released.

"The Social Network", the earlier film about Facebook's founding, opened to about $22 million. A follow-up about the company's later troubles, centred on a whistleblower and starring well-known actors, looked like a natural awards-season contender. The soft start suggests audiences are less eager to pay for a story about social media's harms than they were for a story about its rise, and reviewers have called parts of the film dated and preachy.

The contrast with "Other Mommy" says a lot about what is working in cinemas. Horror films can open strongly even with poor reviews, as this one appears to be doing. Prestige adult dramas, by contrast, increasingly struggle to draw opening-weekend crowds and often depend on awards attention and streaming to make their money.

There is also a real-world thread that matters for viewers far beyond the US. The questions the film raises, about how social media platforms design feeds, handle harmful content and protect young users, are live debates in many countries, including India, where Meta's apps are used by vast numbers of people. Whatever its box office, the film keeps that debate in the public eye.

Short-term: The weak start will hurt the Sorkin film's chances of a long cinema run and may push it towards an earlier streaming release; "Other Mommy" gives its studio a clear hit.

Long-term: Another disappointing opening for a big-name adult drama adds to pressure on studios to favour horror, franchises and lower-cost films for theatrical release.

Who is affected: Sony Pictures and the film's makers, cinema chains, awards-season campaigners, and audiences interested in films about technology and society.

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