Sorkin’s ‘Social Reckoning’: Unfriended, Unliked, Unwatched. Why?

The Social Network is routinely cited as one of the greatest movies of the 21st century — an acclaimed, Oscar-winning hit that combined the talents of David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin with an ensemble of burgeoning stars (Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Rooney Mara) to capture the zeitgeist around Facebook and its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Released by Sony in 2010, The Social Network opened with $22 million in North America and grossed more than $224 million worldwide.

Sixteen years later, The Social Reckoning — Sorkin’s follow-up without Fincher, Eisenberg or any of the original cast — will be fortunate to gross $22 million during its entire theatrical run.

“It never got to the point where ‘why does this exist?’ was answered,” says Christopher Rosen about the new film. Starring Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison and Jeremy Strong (who replaced Eisenberg as Zuckerberg) and directed by Sorkin, The Social Reckoning flopped this weekend, grossing $5.5 million in North America (and $9 million globally).

“No Fincher, no Eisenberg, kind of a sequel but not really. Visually, it looks nothing like the original. The trailers never made the case for the movie, and the audience clearly responded in kind,” adds Chris. “They just were not there for this.”

The disappointing stats: a B- CinemaScore, only 59 percent “definite recommend” on PostTrak, a fifth-place finish, and a reported budget of $30 million (which Sony co-financed with Alcon Entertainment).

“What is this movie about?” asks Sean McNulty, who saw The Social Reckoning and still can’t quite describe what the project is trying to say. Ostensibly based on 2021’s “The Facebook Files,” the exposé on the social network from Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, The Social Reckoning touches on a number of topics — including how Facebook’s algorithm radicalized its users before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and how journalism has changed in the social media era. But the most compelling thread is arguably what The Social Reckoning says about Facebook and Instagram’s impact on teen mental health — a subject the movie only briefly mentions.

“It’s just the wrong time for this story,” says Sean, noting that Facebook’s parent company, Meta, paid more than $17 billion to 47 states this summer to settle a federal lawsuit alleging social media endangers children. “That’s the bigger story here, in a sense. It’s certainly more pressing today.”

While the overall yearly box office remains strong ($8.08 billion so far, up 20 percent from 2025), The Social Reckoning continues a run of movies failing to connect with audiences this fall, following misses including Digger, Verity and this week’s other new release, Other Mommy (a dreadful D+ on CinemaScore for the weekend’s No. 1 movie). 

“It feels like the only movies people liked this season were Resident Evil and Heart of the Beast, which we lovingly call the Brad Pitt dog movie,” says Sean of fall’s wide releases. “I thought fall was when the good movies came out. What’s going on here?”