Sorkin's 'The Social Reckoning' Gets Weak Box Office Start

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who won an Oscar for "The Social Network" (2010), the film about Facebook's early days, has opened its sequel "The Social Reckoning" to weak results. Sunday estimates indicate the film will earn about $5.5 million at the domestic (US and Canadian) box office in its opening weekend. The studio had projected $7 million to $8 million, so the result falls short of already modest expectations.

The first film made $22 million in its opening weekend and $97 million domestically in total, at 2010 ticket prices. It is regarded as one of the most influential on-screen portrayals of Silicon Valley and startup culture.

A darker story

Unlike the original, which focused on the excitement and drama of Facebook's early years, the sequel is darker and heavier. It centers on whistleblower Frances Haugen's decision to leak documents that became known as the Facebook files. The article's author suggests possible reasons for the weak start: the changed theatrical landscape over the past 16 years, the heavy subject matter, older moviegoers who go to theaters only sporadically, and audiences who may now be more concerned about AI. Reviews of the film are also not strong.

Fall films about tech chiefs

The result may hint at audience interest in a fall slate of films about real-world tech executives. Alex Gibney's four-hour documentary "Musk" also opened this weekend, earning $69,000 in four theaters. Nathan Fielder's Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" is due next weekend, as is the OpenAI boardroom drama "Artificial", which has a new distributor after Amazon dropped it. In November, Netflix will release the series "The Altruists" about Sam Bankman-Fried and the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

"Musk" is expected to reach a much larger audience once it begins streaming on HBO Max.