Mark Zuckerberg gets the last laugh as ‘The Social Reckoning’ flops—opening to a fraction of what ‘The Social Network’ made 16 years ago

For weeks, Sony Pictures has been needling Mark Zuckerberg with an ad campaign promising that the Meta CEO will love “The Social Reckoning.” The spot ends with a jab about Instagram not fact-checking most ads, and it runs on Meta’s own platforms.

Now that the film is out, Zuckerberg likely didn’t love the movie.

But he may be taking some delight in its box office performance.

Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to 2010’s “The Social Network” opened in 2,606 theaters on Oct.

9.

It took in about $5 million at the domestic box office over its first weekend, according to The Numbers .

That was below the $5.5 million estimate reported Sunday and less than a quarter of the roughly $22 million “The Social Network” debuted to 16 years ago.

The weak start came despite the critical and commercial success of its predecessor, an all-star cast led by Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, and Jeremy Strong, and a splashy marketing campaign.

A modest opening for a not-so-modest bet Under normal circumstances, $5 million wouldn’t be a disastrous opening for a political drama.

After all, most of “The Social Reckoning” is people in suits having tense conversations, which is hardly blockbuster fare.

But Sony and co-producer Alcon Entertainment spent a reported $30 million to make the film, a generous budget for a movie of its type.

They also backed it with a full-fledged marketing campaign.

The hope was that it might recapture some of the runaway success of “The Social Network,” which went on to gross $225 million worldwide and win three Academy Awards.

Audiences haven’t shown up for the new Facebook drama the way they did for the original, and critics have been lukewarm at best.