New To The Monday Morning Box Office Hangover Report?
Every Monday, here on the Monday Morning Box Office Hangover Report we break down the weekend box office: who won, who didn’t, and what the numbers are really saying about what audiences want right now. It’s your post-weekend debrief with a little cocktail bite.
Opening Pour
October apparently looked at the calendar and said, “Fine, let’s get scary.”
Other Mommy opened at No. 1 with $27.5 million, beating expectations and handing horror another win in a year where the genre has basically become the safest bet in town. Verity fell to second with $11.5 million, Resident Evil kept grinding away in third, and The Social Reckoning face-planted into theaters with just $5.5 million.
So yes, audiences were willing to spend money this weekend. They just preferred fictional nightmares to prestige dramas about the real world. Hard to blame them.
Top 5 Domestic Films
(Weekend estimates, October 9 to October 11, 2026)
- Other Mommy — $27.5M
- Verity — $11.48M
- Resident Evil — $8.35M
- Heart of the Beast — $7.1M
- The Social Reckoning — $5.5M
Recap
The full domestic weekend came in at about $83.1 million, which is not exactly fireworks, but the top of the chart had a very clear genre story. Other Mommy opened with a healthy $8,172 per-theater average from 3,365 locations, while Verity dropped 64% in weekend two and Resident Evil held much better, down only about 34% in weekend four.
More interestingly, 2026 domestic ticket sales have now crossed $8 billion, and horror alone has generated roughly $1.28 billion domestically this year, already closing in on last year’s record. Other Mommy is now the sixth horror or horror-comedy title to open at No. 1 in 2026. That is not a trend anymore. That is a business model.
Highlights and Insights
1) Other Mommy won despite people not loving it
This is one of those wonderfully annoying box office stories where reviews did not matter much. Other Mommy opened to $27.5 million domestic and $45.2 million worldwide, despite weak critical reception and a D+ CinemaScore. Its production budget was reportedly only $19 million, which makes the opening weekend math look even better.
That is horror’s secret weapon right now. You do not necessarily need universal love. You need a hook, urgency, and enough curiosity to get people into the room before word of mouth has time to turn ugly.
2) Horror is not just doing well. Horror is carrying chunks of the theatrical business.
Barron’s puts 2026 horror revenue at roughly $1.28 billion domestic, not far behind last year’s record $1.43 billion, and we still have 81 days left in the year. Other Mommy now joins titles like Backrooms, Obsession, Scream 7, and Resident Evil in what has become one hell of a year for things that go bump in the multiplex.
At some point, calling horror “counterprogramming” stops making sense. It is the programming.
3) Verity took a hard second-weekend fall
After opening No. 1 last weekend, Verity slid 64% to $11.48 million, bringing its domestic total to about $53.9 million. That is a rough hold, especially after such a strong debut, but the movie has already proven the Colleen Hoover audience will show up quickly and loudly.
The issue now is legs. A giant opening weekend is great. A 64% drop means the movie has to start relying on people who were not already in line on day one.
4) Resident Evil may be the quiet winner of the weekend
Weekend four brought in another $8.35 million, down only about 34%, and pushed the domestic total to $138.5 million. Even better, Vulture notes the film has reached about $320.2 million worldwide, helped by a huge Chinese run.
That is what a healthy genre run looks like. No drama, no panic, just week after week of money.
5) The Social Reckoning had a genuinely ugly opening
Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning opened to just $5.5 million from 2,606 theaters. It reportedly cost around $30 million to produce and landed a B- CinemaScore, which is not exactly the response you want when your movie is being positioned as a serious awards-season conversation starter.
And yes, there is something darkly funny about a movie about Facebook whistleblowers getting obliterated by Jessica Chastain in a supernatural horror movie.
Who Had the Rough Morning After?
This week, it is The Social Reckoning.
There is no clever accounting trick that makes $5.5 million look healthy for a wide release with awards aspirations, and the fact that it landed in fifth behind three holdovers makes the result even uglier.
But Digger deserves an honorable mention for continuing to dig. It fell another 60% to $3.2 million in weekend two, bringing its domestic total to only $14.4 million after ten days. For a movie carrying one of the ugliest cost-to-gross ratios of the year, that is the kind of hangover where you start checking if the minibar is insured.
One More Thing Worth Watching
Angel and the Badman opened in ninth with just over $2.06 million from 2,263 theaters. That is not a breakthrough, but it is enough to put it on the radar as one of those specialty titles that may live or die based on word of mouth over the next couple of weekends.
And farther down the chart, Musk opened to $68,900 from only four theaters, which works out to a hefty $17,225 per-theater average. Tiny sample size, sure, but that is still the kind of specialty opening that gets attention.
What’s Next
The bigger story going forward is whether horror can actually break last year’s domestic genre record. At $1.28 billion already, it is getting very close, and the calendar still has upcoming titles like Crawlers and Werwulf waiting in the wings.
Meanwhile, the overall domestic box office has crossed $8.07 billion, up roughly 19.6% over 2025, with analysts now projecting the year could finish near $10.3 billion, which would be the strongest post-pandemic result yet.
That is the bigger takeaway. The theatrical business is not suddenly fixed, but it is healthier than it was a year ago, and horror is doing a frankly ridiculous amount of the heavy lifting.
Final Pour
That’s it for the Monday Morning Box Office Hangover Report. This weekend was not subtle. Horror is king.
Other Mommy won despite awful reviews. Resident Evil kept marching. Verity came back to earth. The Social Reckoning got ignored. Digger kept digging. And horror, once again, walked out with the keys. If 2026 has taught us anything, it is that audiences are still absolutely willing to leave the house for movies. They just want a reason. Right now, apparently that reason is being scared shitless in a dark room with strangers.
Works for us. 🍸🍿
