The Exorcist: Martyrs Trailer & Release Date: Flanagan's 2027 Plan + Hollywood Weekend
October 8, 2026 — Horror fans finally have a date to circle in red. The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer and release date were officially revealed on October 7: Mike Flanagan's new chapter in the legendary franchise will possess cinemas on March 12, 2027, with the full trailer landing this Friday, October 9. The Exorcist: Martyrs release news stars Scarlett Johansson in a detective-vs-demonic-possession story that takes its cues from the cult favourite The Exorcist III — and Flanagan is promising it is nothing like a remake.
That was the biggest single announcement of the day, but Hollywood's October 9 weekend is stacked: Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning (the Social Network companion piece with Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg) and Jessica Chastain's horror double-act Other Mommy both open Friday, while the dust settles on last weekend's shock result — Tom Cruise's Digger crashing to an $8 million domestic debut against Verity's $62 million worldwide triumph. And Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is heading back to IMAX and 70mm screens.
The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer and release date: everything Flanagan revealed
Universal confirmed the official title — The Exorcist: Martyrs — along with first-look images, plot details and the March 12, 2027 theatrical date (as announced; dates can shift). The full trailer arrives Friday, October 9, 2026, a day after the announcement, which tells you how confident the studio is in the footage.
The cast is a genuinely heavyweight ensemble. Scarlett Johansson plays Detective Julie Miller, an NYPD homicide detective and single mother of a 12-year-old boy named Max. Early in the story, Miller apprehends John Leguizamo's serial killer, known as "Father Sunday" — and is a witness to his execution. That, as Flanagan fans will guess, is only the beginning of her problems. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Laurence Fishburne play priests, which in an Exorcist movie is never a good sign for anyone. The wider cast includes Jacobi Jupe, Diane Lane, Sasha Calle and Flanagan regulars Rahul Kohli, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Carla Gugino, Carl Lumbly, Samantha Sloyan, John Gallagher Jr., Gil Bellows, Robert Longstreet, Matt Biedel and Benjamin Pajak.
The story: per the details Flanagan shared with Esquire, the film blends serial-killer thriller with demonic-possession horror, drawing inspiration from The Exorcist III — the 1990 sequel that followed a detective hunting a killer who may be possessed. Detective Julie Miller's surname is itself a nod to Jason Miller, who played Father Karras in the 1973 original. Flanagan has been explicit about his intent: "They're not seeing any attempt to reboot or remake or to step into the Friedkin film. They're actually seeing a story within the Exorcist universe that has not been told before, that is unique within the franchise and taking it in a very different direction than it's gone in the past."
Why it matters: the franchise badly needs a win. The Exorcist: Believer (2023) was a critical and commercial disappointment that forced Universal to rethink its plans, and handing the keys to Flanagan — the filmmaker behind Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass — is the strongest possible course correction. A March 2027 date puts it in prime early-year horror territory, and a Johansson-led cast gives it mainstream pull that Believer never had. Horror is also the one genre where modest budgets can still print money: the template here is a mid-budget franchise revival done right.
The Social Reckoning vs Other Mommy: this Friday's box-office battle
October 9 brings two wide releases aimed at completely different audiences — and the tracking suggests only one of them is exciting the trade.
The Social Reckoning is Aaron Sorkin's standalone sequel — officially a "companion piece" — to his 2010 Oscar winner The Social Network, and this time Sorkin both writes and directs. The story moves nearly two decades forward: it dramatizes the 2021 Facebook Files leak, following whistleblower Frances Haugen (played by Anora Oscar winner Mikey Madison) and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) as they expose the social network's most guarded secrets. The most talked-about casting is Jeremy Strong (Succession) taking over as Mark Zuckerberg from Jesse Eisenberg — a cameo-style turn, but one critics are already singling out. The supporting cast includes Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin and Billy Magnussen. It runs 112 minutes and was made on a reported $30–50 million budget.
The warning signs are flashing, though. Trackers have the film opening to just $6–10 million domestically (Boxoffice Pro) across roughly 2,500 theatres, with other trackers ranging $4–13 million — less than half of The Social Network's $22.4 million opening in 2010. Sony held the reviews embargo until October 7 at 9 a.m. ET, two days before release — not the move of a studio expecting raves — and the early reviews are indeed mixed: a 3-out-of-5 from Radio Times, which calls it "solid but sentimental" and says it lacks the edge of the original, with some critics considerably harsher even as Strong's Zuckerberg earns praise. Note: these are live trade-tracker estimates, not studio-official figures.
Other Mommy is the counter-programming with the better buzz. The Universal/Blumhouse-Atomic Monster original horror stars Oscar winner Jessica Chastain in a dual role — a concerned mother and the vicious doppelganger haunting her daughter — and it is tracking at $15–25 million across about 3,200 theatres. For Blumhouse, which has struggled to launch new original horror franchises since The Black Phone (its recent originals like Wolf Man and The Woman in the Yard underperformed, offset only by low budgets and franchise sequels), a strong Other Mommy opening would be a genuine statement that the studio can still create hits from scratch.
October 9 weekend scorecard
| Film | Studio | Opening tracking | Budget (reported) | Critical signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other Mommy | Universal / Blumhouse | $15–25M domestic | — | Strong pre-release buzz |
| The Social Reckoning | Sony | $6–10M domestic | $30–50M | Mixed; 3/5 Radio Times |
| Verity (2nd weekend) | Amazon MGM | ~$14–18M hold | ~$40M | Audience-driven |
| Digger (2nd weekend) | Warner Bros. | Steep drop expected | $125M+ | 51% RT / C+ CinemaScore |
All opening figures are live trade-tracker estimates and will shift as final numbers come in. The read right now: horror audiences show up in October, prestige adult dramas without franchise hooks do not.
Digger's $8M disaster vs Verity's $62M triumph: final numbers
The full weekend results are in, and they are brutal for Tom Cruise. Digger opened to just $8 million domestically from 3,321 cinemas, finishing fifth — one of Cruise's weakest wide openings in nearly two decades. It added roughly $12 million internationally for a ~$20 million worldwide start. Early projections had it at $30 million domestic before estimates were repeatedly slashed. Against a reported production budget of $125 million-plus (some industry estimates go higher), Warner Bros. is looking at a nine-figure loss. Audiences gave it 71% on Rotten Tomatoes and a C+ CinemaScore — not hate, but nowhere near the love needed to save it.
Verity, meanwhile, did exactly what Anne Hathaway's team hoped: $32.6 million domestic from 3,510 cinemas for a clear No. 1, and $62 million worldwide. The Colleen Hoover adaptation rode its built-in readership past weak reviews (36% critics on Rotten Tomatoes) — the It Ends With Us playbook working again. Hathaway, coming off The Devil Wears Prada 2 ($693 million worldwide) and The Odyssey, is having one of the biggest years of any actor in Hollywood. The fallout already reshaped Bollywood too: with Drishyam: The Conclusion storming past Rs 177 crore in its opening weekend, Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan's Udta Teer moved off its October 9 date to October 23 for a cleaner window — as covered in our earlier report.
The Odyssey returns to IMAX and 70mm on October 9
One more reason to visit a cinema this weekend: Universal announced that Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is returning to select IMAX theatres and 70mm screens starting October 9. The epic, starring Matt Damon, has grossed $1.76 billion worldwide — making it Universal's highest-grossing film of all time, passing Jurassic World's $1.67 billion record, and Nolan's career-best by a distance. It also holds the all-time R-rated box-office record and is the first non-sequel, non-remake since Avatar (2010) to cross $1 billion outside North America. For fans who missed the premium-format run — or want to see it again the way Nolan intended — this is the second chance.
Bonus: Jailer 2 trailer drops ahead of October 15 release
South Indian cinema had its own big trailer moment on October 7: the Jailer 2 trailer arrived, with Rajinikanth returning as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian. Director Nelson Dilipkumar's sequel to the 2023 blockbuster hits theatres worldwide on October 15, reuniting Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar and Jackie Shroff, with Vidya Balan, SJ Suryah and Mithun Chakraborty joining the ensemble. The biggest talking point is a mysterious silhouette fans believe is Hrithik Roshan — his face is never clearly shown, but the cameo speculation has set social media buzzing. Early reactions praise Rajinikanth's screen presence and the large-scale action, though some wonder if the trailer gives away too much.
Related coverage on Showbiz Daily
Follow the threads behind today's stories: last weekend's full Verity vs Digger box-office battle report, with Tobey Maguire's divorce and the Animals premiere; our October 1 Hollywood report on Verity's $35 million opening projection and Digger's slow advance bookings; the complete October–December 2026 Hollywood release calendar with dates, cast and trailer details; and September's Hollywood box-office verdicts — the month's winners and losers.
FAQs
When is The Exorcist: Martyrs release date?
The Exorcist: Martyrs releases in cinemas on March 12, 2027, via Universal. The date was announced on October 7, 2026; as with all announced dates, it could shift.
Who is in The Exorcist: Martyrs cast?
Scarlett Johansson leads as Detective Julie Miller, with John Leguizamo as the serial killer "Father Sunday," Chiwetel Ejiofor and Laurence Fishburne as priests, plus Jacobi Jupe, Diane Lane, Sasha Calle, Rahul Kohli, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Carla Gugino, Carl Lumbly, Samantha Sloyan, John Gallagher Jr. and more.
Is The Exorcist: Martyrs a sequel to The Exorcist: Believer?
No. Director Mike Flanagan says it is not a retread, reboot or remake of the 1973 original, but a new story set in the Exorcist universe that blends serial-killer thriller with demonic-possession horror, inspired by The Exorcist III. It is a fresh start after The Exorcist: Believer (2023) disappointed.
How much did Digger make on its opening weekend?
Tom Cruise's Digger opened to $8 million domestically from 3,321 cinemas (fifth place) plus about $12 million internationally, for a roughly $20 million worldwide debut — against a reported $125 million-plus production budget, making it one of the biggest flops of the year. Figures are trade-tracker estimates, not studio-official.
When does The Social Reckoning release and who plays Mark Zuckerberg?
The Social Reckoning releases in cinemas on October 9, 2026. Jeremy Strong (Succession) plays Mark Zuckerberg, taking over from Jesse Eisenberg; Mikey Madison plays whistleblower Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White plays reporter Jeff Horwitz.