“Verity” opened at No. 1 with $32.6 million, while Warner Bros.’ “Digger” launched with $8 million amid an unfolding Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.
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“Verity” claimed the No. 1 spot in North American theatres with a $32.6 million opening weekend, extending the momentum of Colleen Hoover adaptations at the box office.
Warner Bros.’ “Digger” underperformed on its debut, grossing $8 million domestically and marking one of Tom Cruise’s weakest opening weekends. International sales were also soft, with $12 million from 74 markets.
Directed by Michael Showalter, “Verity” stars Dakota Johnson as a writer hired to ghostwrite a book series for an incapacitated author portrayed by Anne Hathaway.
“Digger,” an Alejandro G. Iñárritu satire described as politically charged, stars Cruise and opened after critics largely dismissed the film as a strained climate-change farce. The studio also ran “decide for yourself” style ads after reviews, as estimates were revised downward over the prior week.
Industry estimates described “Digger” as a costly gamble, with reports placing the production budget at about $150 million and marketing spend estimated at another $100 million. The film is positioned as a potential awards-season contender.
The opening came as Paramount Skydance moved to complete its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery: after a U.S. District Court judge approved the $110 billion deal, Paramount said it would close the merger on Tuesday. Warner Bros. co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy were expected to depart this week, with mass layoffs anticipated to follow.
A film consultant, David A. Gross, wrote that “Digger” “collapsed this weekend” and that the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. leadership would soon decide what kind of movies the studio wants to make. He added that Paramount does not have a recent history of producing big, auteur-driven films.
Cruise, 64, has typically relied on action franchises to keep box-office momentum, including his long-running “Mission: Impossible” series and “Top Gun: Maverick.” His last major box-office disappointment came with 2017’s “The Mummy,” which grossed $409.2 million worldwide on a $195 million budget.
In the top standings, “Avengers: Endgame: Encore” dropped to seventh place with $4.4 million domestically and $14.4 million overseas, while “Endgame” returned to first as the highest-grossing film ever—at $2.9255 billion—narrowly surpassing “Avatar” at $2.9237 billion. Other holdovers included “Resident Evil,” “Primetime,” and Paramount’s “Heart of the Beast.”
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