‘Other Mommy’ Holds the Top Spot, but Its D+ Cinemascore Is Already Taking a Toll at the Box Office

Horror has been on a hot streak this year, and Blumhouse’s ‘Other Mommy’ looked like another easy win when it opened. The Jessica Chastain-led chiller from director Rob Savage debuted on October 9 and claimed the No. 1 spot with $27.5 million from 3,365 North American theaters, comfortably beating the roughly $20 million Universal had projected.

The film adds another $17.7 million from 50 international markets, pushing its global start to about $45.2 million. That’s a strong result for a movie produced for around $19 million, especially since its opening weekend outpaced Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Social Reckoning’, which managed just $5.5 million.

Now the warning signs are starting to show. ‘Other Mommy’ was still No. 1 on Columbus Day Monday with $2.9 million, but that marked a 54.4% drop from Sunday, giving the film a 4-day domestic total of $30.7 million.

That decline looks steep next to other horror titles on the same holiday. For comparison, ‘Scream 5’ earned $3.8 million with a 40.6% drop, ‘The Black Phone’ made $3.1 million with a 47.8% dip, ‘Longlegs’ took in $2.7 million down 48.5%, and ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ pulled $2.4 million with a 57.8% fall.

Terrible WOM prevented R-rated horror #OtherMommy starring #JessicaChastain to benefit from #ColumbusDay boost as much as it would otherwise at US #BoxOffice! The horror was still #1 with a 2.9M MON holiday, but dropping -54.4% from SUN (vs #Scream5’s 3.8M, -40.6%, #TheBlackPhone 3.1M, -47.8%, #LongLegs 2.7M, -48.5%, #TheExorcistBeliever 2.4M, -57.8%) It hits a 30.7M US cume in 4 days. The biggest ace in Blumhouse’s sleeves is always keeping budget under control, and with a 19M production price tag not including marketing, #OtherMommy should have no trouble to make most of the investment back while still in theatres even if it crashes next weekend.

— Luiz Fernando (@Luiz_Fernando_J) October 13, 2026

The likely culprit is poor word of mouth. Opening night audiences polled by CinemaScore handed the film a D+, the lowest grade for any movie since Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ in September 2024 and the same grade carried by ‘Hereditary’.

Critics weren’t much kinder. The film has hovered between 15% and 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, with JoBlo arguing it follows the familiar Blumhouse formula of prioritizing viral marketing over substance.

Based on Josh Malerman’s novel ‘Incidents Around the House’, the film follows 8-year-old Bela, played by Arabella Olivia Clark, who lives in a home strained by marital problems. A sinister entity emerges from her closet, looking and sounding exactly like her mother, and its menace toward the family keeps growing.

New trailer for ‘OTHER MOMMY’, starring Jessica Chastain and Jessica Chastain. The film follows a young girl who is threatened by a sinister demon that looks exactly like her mother. In theaters on October 9. https://t.co/Xwu3FI6pYz

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 15, 2026

Chastain plays both Bela’s mother, Ursula, and the creature wearing her face. Jay Duplass plays Bela’s father, with Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed and Karen Allen in supporting roles, while Nathan Elston of ‘Succession’ wrote the script and James Wan produced through Blumhouse Atomic Monster.

Some reviewers found more to like. TheWrap said the movie is genuinely unnerving for about half its runtime before its expanding lore drains some of the terror, but concluded that it mostly works overall.

Chastain’s commitment has also earned praise, even from critics who disliked the film. Savage has said the movie packs in around 50 jump scares, which some reviewers felt overshadowed the creepier ideas in the premise.

Even with the stumble, the economics remain in the studio’s favor. Keeping costs under control has long been Blumhouse’s biggest advantage, and with a production price tag of just $19 million before marketing, the film should recover much of its investment during its theatrical run even if it falls hard this weekend.

Dread Central predicts the movie will finish its domestic run somewhere around $55 million to $60 million. JoBlo expects at least a 70% drop in its second weekend. The pressure only increases from here. ‘Street Fighter’ and ‘Whalefall’ both arrive next weekend, giving audiences fresh alternatives just as word of mouth catches up with ‘Other Mommy’.

Interestingly, the opening audience was split evenly by gender and skewed young, with about two-thirds aged 18 to 34. Whether that crowd sticks around for a second weekend will decide how long the film can hang on.

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