The new highest-grossing original horror movie of this century, Curry Barker's Obsession, the smash-hit A24 project Backrooms, and a franchise-best box office opening for Scream 7 are just three examples of how successful the horror genre has been in theaters this year. Over the past few years, both critically and commercially, it seems that horror has become the standout choice for theatergoers, with the aforementioned Obsession and Backrooms even toppling the latest Star Wars movie earlier this year.
All these movies managed to earn big returns at the box office despite being released outside of spooky season, so it's fair to suggest that any horror released this month already has an advantage. This weekend, Crawlers will become the latest to make a bid for box office success, as the Angel Gómez Hernández-directed and Jayson Rothwell-penned horror-thriller looks to become the latest lower-budget genre entry to prove a success. But for Crawlers to make the desired impact, it will have to do battle with the 2026 spooky season's current champion.
At the time of writing, after less than a week in theaters, Rob Savage's Other Mommy has already returned $50 million in global revenue, split between a domestic haul of $30 million and a further $20 million from overseas markets. This is against a reported budget of just $19 million, with the film already a financial success and ready to continue its lucrative run this weekend. The film's success is no doubt thanks to star Jessica Chastain, with the Academy Award winner a hugely popular figure to help entice viewers to the theater. An adaptation of the 2024 novel Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman, a logline for the film reads:
"Bela, an 8-year-old girl living in a home with marital problems, confronts a sinister entity which comes out of her closet. The presence, whom she calls "Other Mommy," becomes increasingly threatening to her and her family."
'Other Mommy' Has Been Panned By Critics
It's not the first time, and nor will it be the last, that a horror movie has defied awful critical reception to prove popular in theaters. With a 17% average score on the review site Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, there's no denying just how poorly received Other Mommy has been. ScreenRant's Josh Bate awarded just 4/10 in one of many scathing reviews, saying that "Nothing is scary about Other Mommy, and only the film’s very first sequence is even slightly creepy."
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