'Verity' Owns October: Amazon MGM's Thriller Tops the Month at $59.9 Million While 'The Social Reckoning' Stalls

By The News Desk, Previously

October 17, 2026

October is supposed to belong to horror and prestige. Halfway through the month, it belongs to a bookstore. According to Box Office Mojo’s month-to-date figures for October 2026, with data as of October 17, Verity — the Amazon MGM Studios thriller adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel — leads the entire month with $59,880,402 in October grosses, earned from a maximum of 3,572 theaters since its October 2 opening. Because the film opened inside the month, that figure is also its running total: no holdover padding, no September head start. A streaming-era studio is quietly owning the theatrical month.

The Table, as Verified

Box Office Mojo’s October month-to-date chart puts Universal Pictures’ Other Mommy second with $36,504,440 since its October 9 opening in as many as 3,370 theaters — a strong showing for a horror title, but still more than $23 million behind Verity. Among October’s other new wide releases, Warner Bros.’ Digger stands at $16,321,958 for the month after opening October 2 in up to 3,321 theaters, and Sony Pictures’ The Social Reckoning — Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network — has managed $6,732,057 since October 9 in up to 2,606 theaters, per Box Office Mojo. Holdovers fill the gaps between them: Box Office Mojo credits Resident Evil with $32,344,086 in October grosses on a $142,957,955 total, a reminder that the month’s chart mixes new releases with September’s leftovers — which makes Verity’s clean, in-month lead more striking, not less.

The Cross-Checks Agree

The month-to-date picture is not a data quirk; the weekend reporting tells the same story in stages. Rotten Tomatoes’ weekend box office report for October 9–11 recorded Other Mommy winning that weekend with $27.5 million, Verity second with $11.4 million for a $53.8 million total at that point, The Social Reckoning debuting fifth with $5.5 million, and Digger falling to $3.2 million on the weekend for a $14.0 million total. The Playlist’s account of the same weekend likewise put Verity at $53.8 million domestic. The Playlist put the film’s worldwide total at $113.8 million. In a separate passage, The Playlist reported a $40 million production cost for the film, and concluded it was already a profitable win for Amazon MGM Studios — and evidence that audiences have not tired of Colleen Hoover adaptations. From $53.8 million after the October 9–11 weekend to Box Office Mojo’s $59,880,402 by October 17 is exactly the weekday trajectory those reports imply.

What is Verity selling? Per InfoFlick’s film guide, Verity is a psychological thriller directed by Michael Showalter and written by Nick Antosca, adapted from Colleen Hoover’s 2018 novel: struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh, played by Dakota Johnson, is hired to finish the book series of bestselling novelist Verity Crawford, played by Anne Hathaway, after an accident leaves her unable to write — and discovers a disturbing hidden manuscript in the Crawford home. Josh Hartnett plays Jeremy Crawford. InfoFlick puts the production cost at $40 million, matching The Playlist’s figure, and records an opening weekend of roughly $62.6 million worldwide, including about $32.6 million domestically. InfoFlick also notes Amazon MGM Studios distributed the film in the United States and Canada, with Sony Pictures handling international distribution — the streaming giant needed a legacy studio’s pipes to conquer the world, even as it took the domestic crown itself. Two independent tallies agree on the $40 million production cost — and the worldwide total passed that mark in its opening weekend alone.

The Stall on the Other Side of the Chart

The month’s cautionary tale sits at the other end of the table. The Social Reckoning arrived with a famous title in its lineage and one of Hollywood’s most celebrated screenwriters behind the camera, and Box Office Mojo’s $6,732,057 month-to-date figure — barely up from the $5.5 million opening weekend Rotten Tomatoes recorded — describes a film that found almost no second-weekend life. ComingSoon, in its weekend report, noted the contrast within the same frame: Other Mommy outperformed forecasts despite a 17% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a D+ CinemaScore, while Digger — the Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tom Cruise collaboration — took a C+ from the same audience poll and fell 60% in its second weekend, per The Playlist, which reported the film’s domestic total at $14.4 million at that stage on its way to Box Office Mojo’s current $16,321,958.

The Playlist’s reporting adds one more layer to the month’s divide: while Verity was banking profit on a reported $40 million production cost, the same weekend coverage described Digger as expected to lose between $150 and $200 million for Warner Bros.’ new owner, Skydance. Treat that as one outlet’s industry estimate rather than a studio admission — but the direction of the two films’ economics is not in dispute. One was priced to win October. The other was priced to win an argument about cinema, and October’s ticket buyers declined to fund it.

Read the whole chart and October 2026 becomes a parable about what actually opens movies now. The month’s leader is a mid-budget adaptation of a BookTok-era bestseller, released by the theatrical arm of a tech giant, powered by two stars — Hathaway and Johnson — whose publicity tour The Playlist credited as part of the draw. The month’s laggards are an auteur spectacle and a sequel to a 2010 phenomenon: pedigree without urgency. The audience, as ever, voted for the book club.

The month is not finished — new wide releases, including Street Fighter, are arriving this weekend and will redraw the chart. But Verity’s lead is structural: a $23 million cushion over the nearest October opener, and a worldwide total already reported past $113 million. Its reported production cost — $40 million, per The Playlist and InfoFlick — was cleared weeks ago. Whatever opens next is chasing Amazon. Related coverage: Street Fighter’s Friday box office, the Netflix thriller Sacrifice, and Metallica at the Sphere.