Horror and Jessica Chastain hit the US box office

Despite devastating reviews, Malfaisante successfully launched across the Atlantic, while Digger never stops digging his grave.

Creepy!

The horror movie Evil (Other Mommy in original version), distributed by Universal, collected a nice jackpot of 27.5 million dollars for its first weekend in the United States, in a park of 3,365 theaters, and moved to the top of the US box office. The film, led by a terrifyingly smiling Jessica Chastain, is performing well across the country, with particularly strong results in the West, South and South-Central United States.

The launch was well prepared, thanks to an effective promotional campaign which managed to ignore the catastrophic reviews: only 18% on Rotten Tomatoes is really low…

But horror has been a popular genre in American theaters for some time, and the year 2026 has only strengthened the phenomenon. Obsession exceeded $520 million worldwide, marking one of the most spectacular returns in modern cinema. Just behind, the highly anticipated Backrooms totaled $400 million. The new resident Evil by Zach Cregger is approaching 300 million dollars worldwide. It was more than 200 million for Scream 7 at the start of the year, and another 170 million for Insidious: Invasion from the Far Away.

Yes, the scary genre is popular, especially since production budgets are low. Evil cost just under $20 million to produce and is estimated to break even at around $48 million at the worldwide box office. Suffice to say that it is already almost reached…

The very dark Veritya psychological thriller bordering on horror, occupies second place with good resistance. The film grossed $11.5 million in its second weekend, a drop of 64%, in 3,572 theaters. The North American total of this feature film directed by Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, adapted from the novel by Colleen Hoover, has now reached over $50 million.

And on the podium? More terror with resident Evilwhich continues to hold up well. The film grossed an estimated $8.3 million in its fourth weekend, down just 35%, bringing its U.S. total to nearly $140 million and $260 million worldwide on a budget of $75 million. Zach Cregger (Fainted, Barbarous) succeeded in his bet.

Faced with this horrific trend, The Social Reckoning debuted only in fourth place, in 2,606 theaters, with less than $6 million for the weekend.

Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, the film continues the story of The Social Network and recounts a real fight of David against Goliath: Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a young engineer from Facebook, joins forces with the journalist from Wall Street Journal Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) to embark on a dangerous investigation that will lead to the revelation of the secrets of the social network. The ambitious contemporary thriller was also panned by critics, but unlike the horror genre, these poor reviews seem to have an impact on its theatrical attendance.

Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg will do much less than his predecessor: The Social Network had grossed 22 million dollars upon its release before ending its American career at 97 million in 2010.

And Diggerin all this? Alejandro González Iñárritu’s long-awaited film has hit rock bottom, but continues to sink: less than $3 million for its second weekend, in 3,321 theaters, a drop of 64% in its second week, after its disastrous opening. The total of the farce carried by Tom Cruise painfully reached 14 million dollars in the United States and around 35 million worldwide. For a film of this magnitude, it’s truly horrible.