The Social Reckoning is flopping at the box office

Meanwhile, Other Mommy is having an unexpected moment.

Charles Pulliam-Moore

Oct 12, 2026, 9:20 PM UTC

Image: Columbia Pictures

Charles Pulliam-Moore

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

As important as some of the messages inThe Social Reckoningare, the movie has been drastically underperforming at the box office. PerVariety, Aaron’s Sorkin’s follow up toThe Social Networkonly grossed a measly $5.5 million this past weekend against a budget that’s somewhere within the $30–42 million range. That would make it a certifiable flop that’s costing Columbia Pictures (and Sony) quite a bit of money — especially when you compare it toThe Social Network’s $22 million opening.

This isn’t entirely surprising given how middling reviews for the film have been. It’s currently got a 55% rating onRotten Tomatoesand has widely been trashed on social media. All of this might be reflective of audiences hoping for a proper sequel toThe Social Network, which won three Oscars for its screenplay (written by Sorkin), editing, and score. But it might speak to people not fully clicking with Mikey Madison’s performance aswhistleblower Frances Haugenor Jeremy Allen White’s turn asWall Street Journalreporter Jeff Horwitz. (Madison, for her part, indicated toThe Hollywood Reporterthat it was Sorkin’s vision as director that kept from “authentically and faithfully represent[ing] a real person,” which she hopes to do in the future.) It also probably didn’t help that Jesse Eisenberg — who portrayed Mark Zuckerberg inThe Social Network— hadno interestin being in the film, according to Sorkin himself.

Ironically, Blumhouse’sOther Mommyraked in an impressive $27.5 million this weekend, which likely suggests thatpeople are more interested in novel horroras opposed to reminders of how social media has made everyone’s lives worse.

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