As important as some of the messages in The Social Reckoning are, the movie has been drastically underperforming at the box office. Per Variety, Aaron’s Sorkin’s follow up to The Social Network only 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 to The 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 on Rotten Tomatoes and has widely been trashed on social media. All of this might be reflective of audiences hoping for a proper sequel to The 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 as whistleblower Frances Haugen or Jeremy Allen White’s turn as Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz. (Madison, for her part, indicated to The Hollywood Reporter that 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 in The Social Network — had no interest in being in the film, according to Sorkin himself.
Ironically, Blumhouse’s Other Mommy raked in an impressive $27.5 million this weekend, which likely suggests that people are more interested in novel horror as opposed to reminders of how social media has made everyone’s lives worse.