‘Social Reckoning’ Faces Box Office Challenge With ‘Other Mommy’ Set to Scare Away Competition

The Social Reckoning might not have a lot of influence at the box office this weekend as fellow newcomer Other Mommy looks to win the frame.

Sony Pictures is set to release the companion film to 2010’s The Social Network in 2,200 North American theaters, with the studio projecting an opening for The Social Reckoning around $7 million. Aaron Sorkin wrote and directed the film that carries a modest $30 million budget and stars Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong.

The Social Network held a similar spot on the fall calendar when it opened Oct. 1, 2010, and hit No. 1 domestically with $22.4 million before retaining the top spot in its second weekend with a remarkable decline of just 31 percent. David Fincher helmed that film, which told the story of Facebook’s early days and starred Jesse Eisenberg as founder Mark Zuckerberg, with Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer rounding out the cast. It collected $224 million globally across its run and won three Academy Awards from eight nominations.

None of the first movie’s castmembers return for the follow-up that sees Sorkin — who earned an Oscar for his screenplay for The Social Network — replace Fincher in the director’s chair. The Social Reckoning is a fact-based thriller centering on a Facebook staffer (Madison) who teams up with a journalist (White) to expose concerning truths about the company led by Zuckerberg (Strong).

While The Social Network holds a 96 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and remains one of the most acclaimed titles of its decade, The Social Reckoning has seen a more mixed critical response. Its critics rating stands at 60 on Rotten Tomatoes, although The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic David Rooney’s review heralded it as an “engrossing whistleblower thriller.” Other adult dramas have opened in the projected range for The Social Reckoning, such as last year’s Caught Stealing ($7.8 million) and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere ($8.8 million), although both of those underperformed.

Social Reckoning is part of a spate of a movies about tech companies that will hit theaters in the last few months of the year. Also debuting soon are the forthcoming Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything and Luca Guadagnino’s OpenAI-focused Artificial, while Bleecker Street’s doc Musk opens Friday at select theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

“The news about these companies is as urgent as ever, but they are still stories about corporate power, control and money,” David A. Gross, who runs the box office newsletter FranchiseRe, tells THR about the tech-centric titles. “They seem to have a better home on streaming than on the big screen. Even when they’re well made, they’re not very cinematic in terms of what really works theatrically, which involves some kind of visual or emotional experience.”

This weekend’s top spot on the box office chart is likely to go to the horror offering Other Mommy, as Halloween season charges ahead. Universal Pictures launches the Jessica Chastain-led film in 3,200 North American locations and projects a $20 million opening. Director Rob Savage’s $19 million-budgeted movie focuses on a sinister entity showing up in a young girl’s closet.

The studio has seen promising interest in the movie ever since its startling trailer debuted ahead of Universal’s The Odyssey in theaters over the summer. Critical response looks to be middling for Other Mommy, with critic Richard Lawson writing for THR that the movie is “an attractive but mostly vacuous collection of jumpy bits and half-baked mythology.”

Competing with Other Mommy for female theatergoers looking for thrills is Amazon MGM Studios’ holdover Verity, starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett. Despite a challenging C+ CinemaScore and a 33 percent critics approval on Rotten Tomatoes, director Michael Showalter’s adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel debuted last weekend with $32 million to win the frame, far outpacing the launch for Tom Cruise’s embattled Digger. Verity’s opening weekend skewed heavily female at 78 percent.

In addition to Alex Gibney’s documentary about Elon Musk, other titles debuting in limited release this weekend include Chris Rock’s Misty Green, biographical drama Tenzing, Sebastian Stan-starring Fjord and action-comedy Double Trouble.