The fall box office continues to show some welcome signs of life. Universal’s supernatural horror film Other Mommy opened at No. 1 with $27.5 million, knocking last weekend’s champ Verity into second place and helping push the total domestic box office to $85.2 million for the weekend of October 9-11.
That marks the fourth consecutive weekend in which 2026 has outperformed the comparable frame from 2025.
The trend is even stronger when viewed over a longer stretch. According to Screendollars, 2026 has now topped 2025 on nine of the last 11 weekends, while the most recent four-week period is running 13 percent ahead in box office and 10 percent ahead in attendance.
That suggests the summer surge may be carrying into the fourth quarter. Big draws such as Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey brought audiences back into theaters, and those viewers may now be sticking around for fall releases.
Other Mommy takes No. 1
Universal, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s Other Mommy led the weekend with $27.5 million from 3,365 theaters.
Directed by Rob Savage, the film adapts Josh Malerman’s 2024 novel Incidents Around the House and stars Jessica Chastain as both Ursula and the sinister entity tormenting her daughter Bela. Arabella Olivia Clark plays Bela, with Jay Duplass, Karen Allen, Dichen Lachman and Arian Moayed rounding out the cast.
The horror film arrives with a lean $19 million production budget, meaning the $27.5 million debut puts it on a relatively short path toward theatrical profitability. Screendollars estimates the movie would need roughly $48 million in worldwide box office to get there.
Reviews, however, have been brutal.
The film currently carries just 18 percent from critics and 47 percent from audiences in the data provided by Screendollars, a striking contrast to the solid opening.
That makes its second weekend particularly interesting. Horror can be front-loaded, but a low budget gives Other Mommy room to survive even if word of mouth causes a sharp decline.
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Verity tumbles but remains a winner
Amazon MGM’s Verity dropped to second place with $11.5 million, a steep 64 percent decline from its opening weekend.
Still, the Colleen Hoover adaptation has already reached $53.9 million domestically and $113.8 million worldwide after 10 days. With a reported $40 million production budget, the film is already approaching the level Screendollars considers theatrically profitable.
That also makes Verity one of Amazon MGM’s strongest performers of the year behind Project Hail Mary, which has earned $684.5 million worldwide.
Even with the sharp weekend drop, Verity is tracking to become the second-biggest Colleen Hoover adaptation behind It Ends With Us.
Resident Evil keeps eating
Sony’s Resident Evil reboot continues to hold impressively. Now in its fourth weekend, Zach Cregger’s take on the horror franchise earned another $8.4 million, down 34 percent, bringing its domestic total to $138.5 million and its worldwide tally to $320.2 million.
The film is already the franchise’s highest-grossing domestic entry and is tracking toward one of the strongest global finishes in Resident Evil history.
Its success also reinforces the value of pairing recognizable IP with a filmmaker audiences trust. Coming off Barbarian and Weapons, Cregger gave the reboot a fresh identity while making it accessible to viewers unfamiliar with the games or earlier films.
Brad Pitt’s Heart of the Beast shows legs
Paramount’s Heart of the Beast finished fourth with $7.1 million in its third weekend, dropping a modest 35 percent.
The Brad Pitt survival drama has now earned $50 million domestically and $131.4 million worldwide, showing steady audience interest despite never breaking out as a blockbuster.
Its challenge remains the budget. At a reported $82 million, Screendollars estimates the film would need around $200 million globally to reach theatrical profitability, making that target increasingly unlikely despite respectable holds.
The Social Reckoning struggles out of the gate
Sony’s The Social Reckoning opened in fifth place with just $5.5 million. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, the film serves as a companion piece to The Social Network, shifting focus from Facebook’s creation to the fallout surrounding whistleblower Frances Haugen and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz.
Mikey Madison plays Haugen, Jeremy Allen White plays Horwitz and Jeremy Strong takes over the role of Mark Zuckerberg from Jesse Eisenberg.
The opening is dramatically lower than The Social Network, which debuted to $22.4 million in 2010. The Social Reckoning also carries an R rating, compared with the earlier film’s PG-13, and arrives in a very different theatrical environment for adult dramas.
Its modest $30 million production budget helps limit the downside, but the debut suggests the film may need strong legs and international support to succeed theatrically.
For theaters overall, however, the weekend remains encouraging.
The biggest story may not be which film finished first. It’s that audiences keep showing up.
With horror driving traffic, adult dramas still finding space and several late-summer hits continuing to hold, the fall season is building on momentum instead of starting from scratch.
And after several difficult years for theatrical exhibition, that may be the most important number on the board.
