Sixteen years after The Social Network told the story of how Facebook was born, Aaron Sorkin is back with the story of what it did to us. The Social Reckoning opens in theaters today, Friday, Oct. 9.
This time the hero isn’t Mark Zuckerberg. It’s Frances Haugen, the Facebook data engineer who leaked thousands of internal documents in 2021, played by Oscar winner Mikey Madison. The early verdict from critics and the box office trackers is mixed.
What is The Social Reckoning about?
The film dramatizes the 2021 “Facebook Files” leak. Haugen, a data engineer at the company, teams up with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, played by Jeremy Allen White, to expose what Facebook’s own research showed about the harm its platforms were doing, including to teenagers on Instagram. Jeremy Strong takes over the Zuckerberg role from Jesse Eisenberg. Bill Burr, Betty Gilpin and Billy Magnussen round out the cast, according to the film’s production listing.
Sorkin wrote and directed it. In 2024, he said he was writing a script connected to the January 6 Capitol attack. Sony is calling it a companion piece rather than a sequel.
Is The Social Reckoning good?
Critics are split. The film sat at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes this week, compared with 96% for The Social Network, Gold Derby noted. Variety’s Guy Lodge wrote that it “already feels behind the curve” but called it “diverting enough, clever enough and true enough.” Deadline’s review was warmer; its headline called the film a “stirring journalistic thriller.”
The most common complaint is timing. Haugen testified before Congress five years ago, and the debate over social media and kids has moved on to lawsuits, state laws and settlements. The film is catching up to a story most people already know.
How much will The Social Reckoning make at the box office?
Not a lot, by Hollywood standards. Trackers project a $7 million to $8 million opening weekend, well behind The Social Network’s $22 million debut in 2010, Deadline reported. It’s opening against Jessica Chastain’s horror movie Other Mommy, expected to take first place with $20 million or more, plus playoff baseball and football.
The BeezLoop Take
Even a so-so movie about this subject is worth having in theaters. The Social Network made Zuckerberg a cultural character and, honestly, made a lot of young people want to be him. A film that makes the whistleblower the main character and the company the problem is a useful correction, especially for teenagers who grew up inside the apps it’s about.
But the reviews have a point. Facebook already paid for a lot of what Haugen exposed: Meta agreed this summer to pay up to $17.1 billion in a child-safety settlement. The bigger fights now are about AI chatbots and algorithmic feeds that didn’t exist when Haugen walked out the door, and Hollywood is still telling the last story.
The open question: will anyone make the movie about what’s happening to kids online right now, before it’s five years old?
Also on BeezLoop: Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion in a landmark child-safety settlement, and more than half of people post less than they used to.
Sources: Gold Derby · Deadline · Wikipedia (cast and production) · CBS Sunday Morning · Sony Pictures (trailer)
