'Other Mommy' Wins the Weekend, 'The Social Reckoning' Bombs, and Hollywood's Oct. 5-11
A Jessica Chastain horror film wins a bruising box-office weekend while Aaron Sorkin's Facebook sequel flops, Netflix prepares deep cuts, and Skydance starts life $80 billion in debt.
The week of Oct. 5–11 brought a Halloween-season horror hit, a wide-release flop for Aaron Sorkin, the first full week of the Skydance era, and a new trailer for Blade Runner 2099.
| Story | Lane | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Other Mommy | Box office | A $19 million horror film wins the weekend, CinemaScore and all. |
| The Social Reckoning | Box office | Aaron Sorkin's Facebook sequel opens to about $6 million. |
| Toy Story 5 | Streaming | Pixar's sequel tops Nielsen in its first week on Disney+. |
| Blade Runner 2099 | TV | Prime Video drops a trailer and sets a Nov. 25 premiere. |
| 9-1-1 | TV | Four performers, including star Oliver Stark, are hurt doing stunts. |
| Molepeople | Film | LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn sign on for a 2027 horror film. |
| Saturday Night Live | TV | Shane Gillis hosts a third time; Rosalía performs. |
| Contenders London | Awards | Awards season opens with 12 films on one London stage. |
| Netflix | Industry | The streamer prepares deep cuts ahead of earnings. |
| Skydance | Industry | The merged studio starts life with $80 billion in debt. |
| David Zaslav | Industry | Warner Bros. Discovery's departing chief collects $606 million. |
| Nicolas Cage | Celebrity | He says he refused an AI waiver and may be done with Prime Video. |
Box office and streaming
1. ‘Other Mommy’ wins the weekend, CinemaScore and all
Universal's Other Mommy opened to an estimated $28 million from 3,365 theaters, the weekend's No. 1 and well above the $20 million the studio projected.
The Jessica Chastain horror film cost about $19 million, with Rob Savage directing and James Wan producing. Audiences graded it a D+ CinemaScore, the worst for a wide release since Megalopolis in 2024, and critics gave it 19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Weekend grosses are Saturday estimates.
2. ‘The Social Reckoning’ flops as the holdovers do the work
Sony's The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin's companion piece to The Social Network, opened to about $6 million from 2,606 theaters, under the $7 million the studio expected.
Jeremy Strong plays an older Mark Zuckerberg and Mikey Madison plays Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in the $30 million film, which drew a B- CinemaScore and 54 percent from critics. The holdovers carried the frame: Verity added $14.2 million in week two for a $56.5 million domestic total, and Resident Evil reached $138.3 million.
3. ‘Toy Story 5’ tops Nielsen in its Disney+ debut
Pixar's Toy Story 5 drew 1.54 billion viewing minutes in the week of Sept. 21–27, its first week on Disney+ — roughly 15.1 million views, and enough for No. 1 on Nielsen's overall streaming chart.
That is the second-biggest single week for a movie on Disney+ this year, behind the 1.72 billion minutes Zootopia 2 collected in March. Netflix's Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story slipped 8 percent to 1.36 billion minutes and moved ahead of Prime Video's Neagley, down about 30 percent to 1.25 billion. Nielsen counts U.S. viewing on TV sets only.
Film and TV
4. ‘Blade Runner 2099’ gets a trailer and a Nov. 25 date
Prime Video released a new trailer and key art for Blade Runner 2099 at New York Comic-Con on Saturday, and set the eight-episode limited series for Nov. 25.
Hunter Schafer plays Cora, a fugitive who takes one last identity as a Blade Runner, opposite Michelle Yeoh as Olwen, a replicant with days to live. The story picks up 50 years after Blade Runner 2049; Silka Luisa created and runs it, and Ridley Scott is among the executive producers.
5. Four stunt injuries put ‘9-1-1’ safety back in the spotlight
Four performers on season 10 of ABC's 9-1-1, including star Oliver Stark, have been hurt doing stunts in recent months, Deadline reported.
Stark broke his ankle in late August rehearsing a stunt that swung a firefighter from a car to a ladder truck, and needed surgery; a stunt double had already sprained an ankle on the same move. Two injuries followed, one from a jagged piece of metal that sent a performer to hospital for stitches and one from an awkward landing that broke a rib and slightly compressed a lung.
6. LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn sign on for ‘Molepeople’
LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn will star in Molepeople, a horror film that pairs Blumhouse Atomic Monster with Paramount's genre label Primal for an Aug. 27, 2027 release.
Rob Savage, whose Other Mommy opens this weekend, directs from a script by Nathan Elston; the story follows a man who descends into abandoned tunnels beneath New York City and finds a society living down there. Production is due to start in the U.K. in late November or early December.
7. Shane Gillis hosts ‘Saturday Night Live’ a third time
Shane Gillis returned to Saturday Night Live as host, with Rosalía as the musical guest. The night's most-discussed moment was an accident: Gillis dropped an F-bomb while playing the Cat in the Hat's suspicious son in a Dr. Seuss parody, then apologised.
Deadline's review called the episode a dull one and singled out new cast member Grace Reiter — a bratty kid embarrassing her mother on “Weekend Update” — as its bright spot.
Awards and festivals
8. Awards season opens with 12 films on one London stage
Deadline's Contenders: London event ran Saturday at the Ham Yard Hotel, with casts and crews from 12 films and eight studios making their case as the Oscar race takes shape.
Netflix brought Brad Bird's animated neo-noir Ray Gunn, Danny Boyle's Ink, and Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi's La Bola Negra. The day also featured Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care with Kate O'Flynn, Laika's Wildwood, and Amazon MGM's Project Hail Mary. Penélope Cruz appeared twice, for La Bola Negra and Florian Zeller's Bunker.
Industry and celebrity
9. Netflix prepares deep cuts ahead of earnings
Netflix is preparing a restructuring that could cut roughly 5 percent of its workforce, with a quarterly earnings report due Oct. 20.
The streamer closed last year with 16,000 employees, and its stock is down about 20 percent in 2026. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told a Bloomberg conference on Sept. 30 that the company is “not growing as fast as I want us to.”
10. Skydance opens for business with $80 billion in debt
Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery closed their $110 billion merger on Oct. 6 and began trading as Skydance, a company that carries an $80 billion debt load and about $6 billion in promised cost savings to find.
David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz told staff in a “Day 1” memo that technology “must serve the art,” and thousands of layoffs are expected as the two studios combine. Casey Bloys runs the combined streaming operation, which will decide how HBO Max and Paramount+ sit together.
11. David Zaslav collects $606 million on his way out
David Zaslav, the Warner Bros. Discovery chief who negotiated the company's sale to Paramount, took home just over $606 million when the deal closed.
An SEC filing Thursday showed the Oct. 6 exchange of his WBD shares and options at $31 each, a payout higher than the roughly $517 million first anticipated. Zaslav has long ranked among the best-paid executives in media, and the deal also left him a $34.2 million cash bonus.
12. Nicolas Cage says he refused an AI waiver, and may be done with Prime Video
Nicolas Cage told a New York Comic-Con panel that he refused to sign an AI waiver on Spider-Noir, the Prime Video series cancelled after one season, and that he “probably” will not work with the studio again.
Cage called Amazon “a very AI friendly company” and said he would rather work with Gen Z directors making things “from scratch and by hand.” Cage also said he expects another season of television and floated True Detective as the candidate.
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