Every Friday in the Weekend POURcast, we serve up what’s new in theaters and on streaming, movies only, paired with a curated cocktail suggestion to match the weekend.
Welcome to the Weekend POURcast, your boozy guide to the box office.
October is now fully awake.
Last weekend belonged to Other Mommy, which scared up a strong opening and knocked Verity from the top spot. This weekend, though, the multiplex gets considerably more crowded. We have video-game nostalgia, Jane Austen romance, a survival thriller set almost entirely inside a whale, a new horror entry, two headline-grabbing documentaries, and Kal Penn dealing with the tabloid nightmare surrounding Anna Nicole Smith.
In other words, subtlety has left the building.
Last Weekend in Review
Other Mommy easily won last weekend with $27.8 million, proving once again that horror and October remain a very reliable combination. Jessica Chastain’s sinister maternal nightmare had one of the easiest hooks on the board, and audiences showed up even if their reactions afterward were considerably less enthusiastic.
Verity fell to second with $12 million, a steep 62.5% drop from its opening weekend. That is not catastrophic, but it does suggest the Colleen Hoover audience showed up early and aggressively. Resident Evil continued its remarkably steady run with $8.6 million in fourth-weekend business, while Heart of the Beast held well with $7.4 million.
The real casualty was The Social Reckoning, which opened to just $5 million despite Aaron Sorkin returning to the world of Facebook. That is the kind of opening that tells you awards conversation and commercial interest are not always invited to the same party. Meanwhile, Angel and the Badman quietly pulled in a little over $2 million from more than 2,200 theaters. It did not break out, but it found exactly the kind of specific audience Angel Studios has become very good at reaching.
Now comes a weekend where almost every demographic has something aimed directly at them.
New in Theaters This Weekend
Street Fighter
Hadouken.
Paramount takes another swing at Capcom’s legendary fighting-game franchise with Street Fighter, starring Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, and Roman Reigns.
The marketing has wisely leaned into the bright, exaggerated personality of the games instead of pretending this material needs to become grim prestige cinema. That may be exactly the right move. After decades of Hollywood repeatedly learning that video-game movies work better when filmmakers actually seem to like the video game, Street Fighter looks like it understands the assignment.
Current industry tracking has the movie opening between $25 million and $35 million, putting it comfortably in position to win the weekend. The biggest question is whether millennial nostalgia and wrestling crossover appeal can push it toward the upper end of that range. This probably is not the beginning of awards season. It may, however, involve somebody getting kicked through a wall.
We support both kinds of cinema.
Whalefall
Now here is the weird one.
Based on Daniel Kraus’ novel, Whalefall stars Austin Abrams as Jay Gardiner, a young man diving off the California coast in search of his late father’s remains who gets swallowed by a sperm whale.
Yes. Swallowed. By a whale. He then has roughly one hour of oxygen to figure out how to escape from inside the animal.
Brian Duffield directs, Josh Brolin plays Jay’s father through flashbacks, and the entire premise sounds like somebody combined 127 Hours, Finding Nemo, and the worst possible scuba-diving vacation.
Industry tracking currently has Whalefall around $10 million to $15 million, but this feels like the movie with the greatest potential to surprise. The premise is ridiculously easy to explain, the trailers are built around pure claustrophobic tension, and Austin Abrams is coming off Resident Evil. This is either going to be one of October’s strangest sleepers or the movie people spend six months saying they will eventually watch when it hits streaming.
I am rooting for the whale.
Sense and Sensibility
For anyone whose blood pressure cannot tolerate a man crawling through whale intestines, Focus Features would like to offer Jane Austen.
Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Elinor Dashwood, with Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne, in director Georgia Oakley’s new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. George MacKay, Caitríona Balfe, Frank Dillane, and Fiona Shaw round out the cast.
The film has been positioned as both a romance and a story about sisterhood, and early reviews suggest this version remains faithful to Austen while bringing a slightly more contemporary emotional perspective to the material. Tracking currently has it around $8 million to $12 million, which feels like a healthy target for adult counterprogramming on a weekend dominated by punches, horror, and digestive trauma. Honestly, walking out of Whalefall and directly into Sense and Sensibility might qualify as emotional whiplash.
Musk
Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour documentary Musk also expands wide this weekend through Bleecker Street.
The film examines Elon Musk’s rise, businesses, relationships, and increasingly complicated place in American culture and politics, using interviews with people ranging from journalists and engineers to members of Musk’s personal orbit. At nearly four hours, nobody is casually wandering into this one because the next Street Fighter showing is sold out. But documentaries built around polarizing public figures can become cultural events of their own, particularly when audiences already have very strong opinions before buying the ticket.
Whatever happens commercially, people will definitely have things to say afterward.
Trust Me, I’m a Doctor
Kal Penn stars as Dr. Sandeep Kapoor in Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, based on the physician’s legal battle after he became implicated in the death of former patient Anna Nicole Smith.
Abbie Cornish plays Smith, Linda Hamilton portrays attorney Ellyn Garofalo, and the movie uses the tabloid insanity of the early 2000s as the backdrop for a story about celebrity, justice, addiction, and public judgment.
This is not likely to compete for the top of the box office, but the subject matter alone gives it curiosity value, particularly for anyone who remembers just how completely Anna Nicole Smith dominated tabloid culture.
Also Arriving in Theaters
There are several smaller and international releases worth noting this weekend as well. Flywheel: Ignition of the Soulbrings a Brazilian reimagining of the Kendrick Brothers’ faith-based film to U.S. theaters, while Jailer 2 arrives for Indian cinema audiences.
Limited releases include The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, starring John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, and Tatiana Maslany, along with Poetic License, Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub, and Netflix’s limited theatrical run of La bola negra.
And because October apparently has room for everything, the 40th anniversary of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is also back in theaters.
Romance, fighting games, serial killers, whales, and Jane Austen. That is a healthy ecosystem.
Box Office Forecast: October 16th-18th, 2026
1. Street Fighter
$28M to $35M
This feels like the easiest No. 1 call of the weekend. The game has enormous recognition, the movie is PG-13, and nostalgia should help pull in an audience that remembers dropping quarters into arcade cabinets. The real question is whether it simply performs respectably or turns into something bigger through audience enthusiasm.
2. Whalefall
$11M to $16M
I am going slightly more aggressive than the published tracking here because the concept sells itself in approximately seven words: guy gets trapped inside a whale. That kind of high-concept premise can punch above expectations if audiences start talking about the experience.
3. Other Mommy
$9M to $13M
The word of mouth is rough, which normally means a hard second-weekend drop. But it is also October, it is horror, and the opening gave it enough momentum to survive another weekend near the top.
4. Sense and Sensibility
$8M to $12M
This is the clearest adult counterprogramming option. It does not need to compete with Street Fighter. It needs to find Jane Austen fans, Daisy Edgar-Jones fans, romance audiences, and people who simply do not want to spend two hours inside a whale.
That is a perfectly respectable lane.
5. Resident Evil
$5M to $8M
Five weekends in and still hanging around. At this point, Resident Evil has earned the right to stay in the forecast until somebody physically removes it.
October Horror Check
The most interesting thing about October 2026 is how many different flavors of horror are currently surviving at the same time.
Other Mommy gives audiences supernatural domestic horror. Resident Evil continues to serve franchise horror. Crawlers brings another original genre play into the marketplace, while Whalefall may not be traditional horror but certainly qualifies if your definition includes being slowly digested by a marine mammal.
And then there is the anniversary return of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer for anyone who somehow feels the newer movies are simply not upsetting enough. The genre has had an extraordinary year because audiences do not appear to want one specific kind of horror. They want movies that give them an experience worth leaving home for.
That is an important distinction, and one Hollywood should probably keep paying attention to.
New Movies on Streaming This Weekend
The streaming side is just as crowded this week, with several legitimate movie premieres arriving across the major services.
Sacrifice | Netflix
Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy lead Sacrifice, a dark comedy-thriller from director Romain Gavras.
Evans plays a washed-up movie star attending an extravagant charity gala when Taylor-Joy’s character and a group of environmental extremists take the event hostage. Their solution to the climate crisis apparently involves ritual sacrifice and a volcano, which is already more plot than most movies give us before the second act.
Vincent Cassel, Salma Hayek, John Malkovich, Sam Richardson, and Charli XCX also appear.
Netflix premieres Sacrifice on October 16.
Masterplan | Prime Video
Stanley Tucci stealing the Mona Lisa.
That is probably enough information. But if you need more, Masterplan stars Tucci as a legendary thief who recruits two strangers to help pull off the heist before revealing that they are actually his long-lost children. Simona Tabasco and Victor Belmondo co-star in the French-Italian Prime Original, which arrives globally on Prime Video October 16.
Family therapy would probably have been cheaper.
Tenzing | Apple TV
After a limited theatrical release last weekend, Tenzing arrives globally on Apple TV Friday.
The historical adventure tells the story of Tenzing Norgay, played by Genden Phuntsok, and Edmund Hillary, played by Tom Hiddleston, as they attempt the first successful ascent of Mount Everest. Willem Dafoe and Caitríona Balfe round out the cast, while director Jennifer Peedom approaches the famous expedition from Tenzing’s perspective rather than treating him as the supporting character in someone else’s story.
For anyone looking for something big, serious, and visually spectacular at home, this may be the weekend’s strongest streaming option.
The Death of Robin Hood | HBO Max
Hugh Jackman’s bruising take on Robin Hood arrives on HBO Max this weekend after its theatrical run. The A24 film stars Jackman as an aging Robin confronting the violent legacy of his life, with Jodie Comer and Bill Skarsgård also in the cast.
If your preferred Robin Hood involves considerably less singing, fewer tights, and substantially more regret, HBO Max has you covered.
Weekend Drink Pairing: Stone & Bitter
This weekend’s drink pairing is Stone & Bitter.
There is something appropriately sturdy about that name for a weekend built around fighters, survivalists, wounded fathers, difficult romances, controversial public figures, and a guy literally trying to punch his way out of a whale.
Street Fighter may be the obvious connection, but the pairing works across almost everything on the board. This is not a particularly delicate movie weekend. Even Jane Austen arrives surrounded by bruised bodies and bad decisions.
So pour something with a little backbone.
Then choose your fighter.
Final Pour
This may be one of October’s most eclectic weekends. And certainly one of the most eclectic Weekend POURcasts.
Street Fighter should take the box office crown, but Whalefall is the movie I am watching most closely. Sense and Sensibility gives adults a completely different option, Other Mommy gets its first real durability test, and horror continues to spread across the schedule like somebody forgot to close the basement door.
At home, the choices are just as strong. Chris Evans is being threatened with volcanic sacrifice, Stanley Tucci wants the Mona Lisa, Tom Hiddleston is climbing Everest, and Hugh Jackman would apparently like to ruin whatever comforting childhood memories you had of Robin Hood.
Choose wisely.
Or don’t.
That is why we have cocktails. 🍸🍿
