Christopher Nolan probably wasn’t expecting “The Odyssey” to help launch one of the year’s most successful horror movie marketing campaigns. But when Universal tied the first trailer for “Other Mommy” to screenings of Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic in July, audiences got a nasty surprise.

Featuring Jessica Chastain as a monstrous and weirdly bendy maternal entity with a knack for appearing where she shouldn’t, the “Other Mommy” trailer terrified many unsuspecting Nolan fans and quickly became a genre meme in its own right. (Suffice to say, you almost couldn’t visit digital horror spaces this summer without seeing Chastain’s mutated neck slinking out from beneath a table.)

Three months later, the marketing campaign has officially paid off. “Other Mommy,” Rob Savage’s adaptation of Josh Malerman’s 2024 horror novel, “Incidents Around the House,” has scared up an estimated $27.5 million domestic opening, claiming top spot at the box office.

With another $17.7 million overseas, the Blumhouse-Atomic Monster production has earned $45.2 million worldwide. That’s an impressive debut for a movie that critics largely… hated. Like, really, really hated. Right now, “Other Mommy” holds an abysmal 18 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with IndieWire giving the film a comparatively generous C+. Audiences haven’t been much kinder.

Just 47 percent of verified moviegoers on Rotten Tomatoes rated “Other Mommy” positively, while Letterboxd users have settled on a dismal 2.3 out of 5 stars. It got a miserable D+ CinemaScore over the weekend, too. For comparison, that’s the lowest grade recorded by the audience polling service since Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” in September 2024.

Universal successfully sold audiences on the promise of a terrifying and emotional horror experience starring an Oscar-winning actress. And while the finished film does have its defenders, “Other Mommy” hasn’t inspired nearly as much enthusiasm as its promotion did.

That’s not necessarily a problem for a studio celebrating a box office hit, but it does complicate the question of how long that success can last. After months of making “Other Mommy” seem like the scariest movie of the year, what happens when the advertising turns out to be the best part?

O Mommy, Where Art Thou? (Or, “The Odyssey” Placement)

The “Other Mommy” trailer worked because audiences didn’t need to know anything about the movie to be genuinely scared of the clip promoting it. The first preview opens with an innocent domestic exchange between a mother and daughter that abruptly transforms into something strikingly disturbing. It’s a remarkably simple and effective piece of filmmaking, anchored in a compelling balance of tenderness and terror that Savage’s feature struggles to sustain.

Placing that preview ahead of “The Odyssey” was especially clever. Rather than limiting the “Other Mommy” campaign to genre enthusiasts already inclined to seek out scary trailers, Universal introduced its new villain to a massive audience that hadn’t necessarily signed up to meet her. And Nolan’s epic had some spectacular monsters of its own. In his review, IndieWire’s David Ehrlich praised the film’s gruesome Cyclops sequence as a showcase for the filmmaker’s “latent skill as a horror director.”

Between the head-chewing giant and a preview of Chastain’s heart-stealing contortionist, moviegoers got quite the double feature. The resulting reactions became their own publicity machine, which translated into both headlines covering audience reactions and measurable “Other Mommy” interest.

Boxoffice Pro reported a noticeable bump in its own tracking after “The Odyssey” trailer placement, while broader industry forecasts climbed as high as $35 million before cooling later in the summer. The outlet ultimately forecast a $17 million to $22 million debut, which the film comfortably exceeded.

More Memes, Less… Meaning?

The studio didn’t stop at one viral scare, either. Subsequent promo materials continued to emphasize Chastain’s grotesquely elastic role, with an eye-catching outdoor ad campaign spotlighting the character’s unsettling expression and making her movie recognizable at a glance.

It’s an elegant and simple strategy, really. Take an Academy Award winner, make her look like something that crawled out of a nightmare and let the public imagine the possibilities for you. Unlike the increasingly complicated supernatural mythology of Savage’s completed project, “Other Mommy” publicity needed almost no explanation to work.

Unlike some literary adaptations, the film also didn’t require audiences to know much of anything about Malerman’s source novel or Savage’s previous work as a horror director. That familiarity has certainly worked in the movie’s favor among some viewers, particularly those invested in its maximalist approach to both familial melodrama and semi-surreal scares.

That said, Universal’s campaign seemed less interested in cultivating those audiences than in reaching people who would have a strong reaction to a two-minute trailer. Rather than selling “Other Mommy” on its creative pedigree, the studio let a first impression do the heavy lifting.

Of course, previews are supposed to make upcoming releases look good. What’s more unusual is how effectively “Other Mommy” sustained that impression without much help from the critical establishment. Press screenings were scheduled unusually close to release (IndieWire didn’t screen the film until Thursday night, less than 24 hours before the movie opened nationwide), leaving little opportunity for reviews to influence the social conversation before audiences started buying tickets.

And despite some viewers sincerely connecting with Chastain’s performance and Savage’s sensitive approach to the material, the publicity conversation around “Other Mommy” appears to have been far more limited than its viral advertising campaign. One could argue that’s a missed opportunity for both entertainment journalists and the artists behind the movie, whose storytelling ambitions deserve attention beyond their most marketable scares. In prioritizing the immediate impact of its advertising, Universal may have strengthened “Other Mommy” as a financial event but undercut it as a cultural one.

The Trouble with Overselling How Scary Something Really Is

The imagery of “Other Mommy” was arguably more successful than the surrounding story, even in the complete context of Savage’s film. And while there’s nothing inherently dishonest about that approach to marketing, how this movie does next weekend will tell us a lot about what it means when audiences are promised an experience the real film doesn’t support for enough people who see it.

Some moviegoers have already made that distinction themselves. As one Letterboxd user put it, “the surprise drop of the first trailer was way scarier and better than the actual movie.” Other reviewers have echoed the sentiment, with some specifically lamenting that the film’s most effective scare had been spoiled months before they saw it. In that sense, “Other Mommy” may have been a victim of its own promotional success.

And Blumhouse certainly knows the difference between a scary movie and a so-called “scary” movie. The horror powerhouse has spent years building major Hollywood releases around premises that practically advertise themselves. Take the murderous swimming pool in “Night Swim,” or the sinister teddy bear in “Imaginary.” Both titles arrived in 2024 with easy-to-read monsters that nevertheless got lukewarm receptions — but their box office performances tell us slightly different stories.

“Night Swim” opened to $11.8 million domestically before plunging 61 percent in its second week, earning just $4.6 million. Meanwhile, “Imaginary” debuted at $9.9 million domestically and held up considerably better, dropping roughly 44 percent to $5.6 million. Neither release became a theatrical phenomenon, but each earned more than $40 million worldwide — suggesting even mediocre horror films can get respectable returns when their premises are appealing enough.

On the opposite end of the spectrum for Blumhouse is “M3GAN,” the killer doll whose online popularity helped propel her 2023 debut to $30.4 million domestically. Unlike “Night Swim” and “Imaginary,” the original “M3GAN” largely delivered on the ridiculous fun that was promised by its trailer. The result was a remarkably strong second-weekend hold, slipping just 40 percent to $18.3 million. It eventually earned more than $180 million globally.

Crucially, “M3GAN” also had critics on its side, earning a 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That figure is worlds away from the 18 percent currently held by “Other Mommy.” Both films had the ingredients to turn their title characters into memes and their theatrical debuts into events, but Universal was able to turn genuine widespread love for M3GAN into fuel for a celebratory marketing spectacle that only got more entertaining as it grew. That same victory lap for Chastain’s twisty antagonist seems unlikely, and under the exceptionally divisive circumstances, even reaching for it risks looking smug.

What Happens to “Other Mommy” Now?

Still, “Other Mommy” has already accomplished something significant for Blumhouse-Atomic Monster. Its $27.5 million domestic debut marks the company’s biggest domestic opening weekend of 2026 so far — surpassing “Obsession” (which grew over time as a word-of-mouth victory) and even the latest “Insidious” installment. Combined with a strong international start, that’s a promising financial position for an original horror movie with a reported $19 million production budget, before marketing costs.

Horror audiences are also notoriously unpredictable, and a dismal CinemaScore doesn’t automatically guarantee an equally dismal theatrical run. Next weekend should offer a clearer picture of whether Universal has created another enduring genre attraction or simply convinced millions of people to show up for an exceptionally good commercial.

For Blumhouse, there’s a larger question of trust. The company’s reputation was built partly on persuading audiences to take chances on inexpensive, surprising horror outings — often with little more than a compelling premise to go on. That goodwill is valuable, but it isn’t inexhaustible. And while a great trailer can convince someone to buy a ticket once, persuading them to take that chance on you again is… a whole other mother.