Other Mommy has about $95 million worldwide on a reported budget of $18 to $19 million, per Wikipedia. That makes it a financial success. It also has 19% on Rotten Tomatoes and a D+ from the audiences who saw it.
The film is a good example of how little a bad reception can matter to a cheap horror film's finances, and how much it matters to everything else.
The Film
- Director: Rob Savage, from a screenplay by Nathan Elston based on Josh Malerman's 2024 novel Incidents Around the House.
- Cast: Jessica Chastain as Ursula and as the entity of the title, Arabella Olivia Clark as her daughter, with Jay Duplass, Dichen Lachman and Karen Allen.
- Premise: a mother must protect her seven-year-old daughter from a supernatural entity that looks like her.
- Studio: produced by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, with James Wan as a producer, and released by Universal Pictures. It runs 93 minutes.
- Release: U.S. theaters on October 9, 2026. It was first scheduled for May 8.
The Numbers
| Period | Gross | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Opening weekend | $27.8M | 3,365 theaters, number one. Variety reported $27.5M |
| Second weekend | $8.2M | down 70% |
| Third weekend | $3.85M | down 53%, sixth place, per The Numbers |
| Domestic total | about $52M | as of October 25 |
| International | $44M | |
| Worldwide | about $95M |
At the reported budget, the worldwide gross is five times the cost, which is similar to the ratio of far better-reviewed films. Theaters keep a share of ticket sales and marketing is not in the budget number, so it is not a profit figure, but it explains why studios keep making films like this. We lay the comparison out in our analysis of this year's horror box office.
The Reception
- Rotten Tomatoes: 19% from 96 reviews, an average of 4.4 out of 10.
- Metacritic: 38 from 15 critics, "generally unfavorable."
- CinemaScore: D+, a very low grade.
- PostTrak: 47% of the audience positive and 33% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Reviewers who disliked it split between finding it funny and finding it absurd. The New York Times called it by turns creepy and hilarious schlock, and The Guardian gave it two stars out of five, saying its effects get less scary as it goes on. Wikipedia singles out Chastain's performance as a bright spot in an otherwise panned film.
The 70% second-weekend drop is the number that tracks the audience's grade. Compare Resident Evil, which got a B+ and fell 61%, or Verity, which opened at number one with a C+ and fell 63%, as we covered earlier.
Editorial Take: Other Mommy is the clean version of an argument we keep returning to: a film can fail with critics and audiences and still return its budget several times over, as long as it was cheap and opened wide. What the reviews do decide is the tail. A D+ means few people recommend it, and the 70% drop shows it. For its producers the finances look fine. For the film's reputation, they are a footnote.
Track Other Mommy on Incoming →
Frequently Asked Questions
How much has Other Mommy made? About $95 million worldwide, including about $52 million in the U.S. and Canada, as of October 25.
How much did Other Mommy cost? A reported $18 to $19 million.
What are the Other Mommy reviews? 19% on Rotten Tomatoes from 96 reviews and 38 on Metacritic from 15 critics. Scores can change.
What is Other Mommy's CinemaScore? D+.
Who is in Other Mommy? Jessica Chastain, Arabella Olivia Clark, Jay Duplass, Dichen Lachman and Karen Allen, directed by Rob Savage.
Is Other Mommy based on a book? Yes, Josh Malerman's 2024 novel Incidents Around the House.
Box office and review figures come from the sources linked above and can change. Tracking what arrives next across movies, TV, games, music and books at incoming.to.