Jessica Chastain’s latest horror turn pulls in $45.1 million globally — despite rotten reviews and a D+ audience score. The real win? People still flocked to see it.
Other Mommy opens strong, defying critics with $45.1 million global debut — and no one’s surprised. The horror film, led by Jessica Chastain as a mother-shaped menace, took the box office crown in its opening weekend with $27.5 million domestically and $17.6 million overseas. That’s a win for Universal and Blumhouse, even if it’s not a win for taste.
The movie’s $19 million budget is already recouped, but the real story isn’t the money, it’s the silence from the critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 16%. CinemaScore? D+.
Even James Wan, producer and genre godfather, can’t save it. But people still showed up. And paid. And screamed.
Not because it’s good. Because Chastain is in it. Because it’s October. Because the trailers promised something unsettling, something familiar.
A mother who isn’t quite right. Arabella Olivia Clark plays Bela, the child at the centre of the dread, while Jay Duplass and Dichen Lachman round out a cast that knows how to sell unease. Karen Allen’s presence? A callback.
A wink. A ghost. The film’s premise, a supernatural entity mimicking a mother. Leans into primal fear.
It’s not original. It’s not clever. But it works. Horror has long been the genre that laughs at reviews.
Five Nights at Freddy’s made history despite being called ‘soulless’ by half the press. Other Mommy joins that list, not because it’s great, but because audiences don’t care. They want the scare. They want the star.
They want the season. This isn’t about art. It’s about release. And the fact that a film this bad could still open like this?
That’s the real horror. Weekend two will be a drop. Maybe a steep one. But it doesn’t matter.
The job’s done. The cash is in. Now, the question isn’t whether it’ll survive. It’s what comes next.
Will Chastain do it again? Will Rob Savage try to scare us back into theatres? Or will we just wait for the next thing that looks like a mom, but isn’t?
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