'Other Mommy' Tops the Box Office Despite Brutal Reviews and a D+ CinemaScore

Horror fans know the October ritual. As Halloween approaches, audiences show up for scares, and sometimes they show up even when critics warn them not to.

That is exactly the story this weekend, where a creepy new Jessica Chastain movie has proved that a good jump scare can beat a bad review.

After ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ made 2026 a huge year for the genre, studios have good reason to expect strong turnout. Horror films have generated more than $1.1 billion at the domestic box office this year.

Universal and Blumhouse’s Atomic Monster had the calendar on their side, too. The new release arrived three weeks before Halloween, a window that has historically rewarded scary movies.

Jessica Chastain’s ‘Other Mommy‘ opened to an estimated $27.5 million at the domestic box office on 3,365 screens, enough to take the No. 1 spot. The Hollywood Reporter put the weekend at around $28 million, well above the $20 million start Universal had projected.

The numbers have kept climbing. Thursday previews brought in $3.6 million from 2,850 theaters, and Friday came in at roughly $12.3 million, according to Deadline. Pre-release forecasts ranged from $17 million to $22 million, with some predictions going as high as $35 million.

The film reportedly cost between $18 million and $19 million to produce, so it has essentially paid for itself in a single weekend, before marketing costs.

The reception has been far less kind. Critics have given the film an 18% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and opening-night audiences handed it a rare D+ CinemaScore. That puts it in the same league as titles like ‘Borderlands’, ‘Die My Love’ and ‘Battlefield Earth’.

Not every review was negative. One critic called Chastain an unhinged delight, while another called the film a so-so horror that feels familiar and moves too rapidly. A D+ usually signals a steep second-weekend drop, so the film’s legs will be the real test.

Directed by Rob Savage and produced by James Wan’s Blumhouse Atomic Monster, ‘Other Mommy’ follows Bela, an 8-year-old girl played by Arabella Olivia Clark. She forms a relationship with a sinister entity that emerges from her closet and looks exactly like her mother.

Chastain plays both roles, Bela’s real mother and the creature known as Other Mommy. Jay Duplass plays Daddo, and the cast includes Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed and Karen Allen.

The film is adapted from Josh Malerman’s novel ‘Incidents Around the House’, with a screenplay by Nathan Elston. It is rated R and runs 92 minutes.

First look at an eerie crying billboard for ‘OTHER MOMMY’, starring Jessica Chastain. The film follows a young girl who is threatened by a sinister demon that looks exactly like her mother. https://t.co/4g0jwHVQE6
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 8, 2026

The premise has drawn plenty of comparisons to ‘Coraline’, which also features an alternate mother with sinister intentions. Reviewers noted that, unlike Henry Selick’s film, ‘Other Mommy’ is definitely not for kids.

The movie also recalls ‘Mama’, the 2013 horror film in which Chastain starred as a woman caring for children haunted by a mysterious maternal entity. That film grossed $148 million on a $15 million budget.

Part of the opening can be credited to the marketing. The trailer, which includes a particularly frightening jump scare from Chastain as Other Mommy, went viral after it played in front of theatrical screenings of ‘The Odyssey’.

Strong trailers and TV spots sold the film as accessible, gateway horror. That kind of campaign can drive big openings even when word of mouth turns sour.

The wider market had a rough weekend. Total earnings fell below $90 million, and it was the second weekend in a row that new major releases struggled. Sony’s ‘The Social Reckoning’ opened in fifth place with about $6 million, well below expectations.

Meanwhile, ‘Verity’ and ‘Resident Evil’ posted solid holds, and ‘The Odyssey’ returned to the top 10. One analyst expects ‘Other Mommy’ to finish its run somewhere between $55 million and $60 million, which would make it a respectable earner for a low-budget horror film.