Jessica Chastain's 'Other Mommy' Is Crushing the Box Office Despite Terrible Reviews — Horror Wins Again

Horror Keeps Winning at the 2026 Box Office — And 'Other Mommy' Is the Latest Proof

Here's a fun pattern in 2026: critics hate it, audiences love it, and the horror genre keeps printing money. Jessica Chastain's new horror film Other Mommy is the latest example, debuting at No. 1 at the domestic box office despite receiving some of the worst reviews of the year from both critics and general audiences.

The film arrived in theaters the same weekend as Aaron Sorkin's much-hyped The Social Reckoning (the sequel to The Social Network), and absolutely steamrolled it. While Sorkin's prestige drama stumbled hard at the box office, Other Mommy outperformed all forecasts, proving once again that horror has a built-in audience that simply cannot be stopped.

What Makes 'Other Mommy' So Divisive?

Chastain plays a woman who begins to suspect that her young daughter's new "imaginary friend" might be something far more sinister — specifically, a supernatural entity mimicking a maternal figure. The premise is creepy enough, but the execution has divided viewers sharply. Critics have called it "derivative" and "reliant on cheap jump scares," while horror fans seem perfectly happy with exactly that.

The film joins a stacked 2026 horror roster that includes Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot (which has crossed $320 million worldwide), Colleen Hoover's Verity adaptation, and Mike Flanagan's upcoming The Exorcist: Martyrs starring Scarlett Johansson. This year is shaping up to be one of the best for horror at the box office in recent memory.

The 'Jeremy Strong' Text Exchange That Went Viral

Adding to the film's pop culture moment, Jeremy Strong sent Chastain a hilarious text exchange after the box office numbers came in. Strong screenshot a headline reading "Other Mommy Spanks The Social Reckoning at the Box Office" and sent it to Chastain with a series of increasingly dramatic emojis. Chastain shared the exchange on social media, and it promptly went viral.

Love it or hate it, Other Mommy proves that horror is the most recession-proof, critic-proof genre in Hollywood. As long as there are dark theaters and people who love being scared, these films will keep dominating. And honestly? That's kind of beautiful.