Verity tops the weekend box office — while Digger stalls at $8 million

This weekend at the box office was all about let-downs, surprise victories, and a couple of films already booking their spot in the cinematic dustbin. There was real anticipation for the Tom Cruise drama Digger, but in the end, it barely made a blip — and yet Anne Hathaway, of all people, is walking away with the win. Let's break down who bombed, who triumphed, and just how messy the whole thing got.

Digger tied for fourth place with only $8 million, despite a rumoured $130 million budget.

Cruise Misses, Hathaway Wins

Digger was supposed to be the big Cruise vehicle, not least since he's sharing the screen with Anne Hathaway ahead of their reunion in Days of Thunder 2. Pundits — myself included — thought it might kick off in the mid-teens, financially speaking. It did not. Instead, the opening weekend in the States coughed up a paltry $8 million, putting it level with A24's Primetime for fourth place. With its budget apparently somewhere north of $130 million, that's nothing short of a disaster.

International markets offered a bit of a consolation, with Digger scraping together $12 million abroad, making a worldwide debut of $20 million. Frankly, it would be surprising if it claws above $50 million when all’s said and done. This isn't the sort of flop Cruise usually attaches his name to, but let's treat it as a rare misfire — the kind that's all the more glaring because Warner Bros. reportedly rushed it out as their final release before the big Skydance merger. Could be the last time we see anyone take this kind of cinematic gamble for a while.

The Verity Takeover

Instead of Cruise, it’s Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson who get to celebrate. Their film, Verity (based on the Colleen Hoover novel), cleaned up domestically with $32.6 million. Two things to note: it only cost $40 million to make, and most audiences weren’t all that impressed, giving it a C+ CinemaScore — the exact same as Digger. That doesn't usually bode well for word-of-mouth, especially with Jessica Chastain's Other Mommy releasing next Friday to compete for the same crowd.

Still, Verity made almost as much overseas ($30 million), bringing its global takings to a healthy $62.6 million. That sort of return on investment is what studio execs dream about.

Verity raked in over $62 million globally on a $40 million budget.

Solid Runners-Up, Steep Drops, And A Snake-shaped Disaster

• Resident Evil kept its horror franchise crown, earning $12.5 million at home (up to $124.9 million total in the US) and another $16.6 million internationally (for a whopping $245 million globally). With autumn creeping in, horror films usually enjoy a box office bump, so don't expect it to slow down just yet.
• Brad Pitt’s survival adventure Heart of the Beast proved surprisingly stable, dropping just 45% for $11 million domestically. It’s really blowing up abroad though, with $21.5 million this weekend and an international total now sitting at $98 million.
• Primetime, an A24 feature starring Robert Pattinson, dropped a sharp 58% to $8 million, also landing it on the same rung as Digger. But with $34 million total in the US and modest production costs, it's not in any real trouble.
• DreamWorks' animated Forgotten Island keeps floundering, down another 45% to $7.2 million – just $23 million so far, not pretty for something this expensive to make.
• Avengers: Endgame – Encore had a spectacularly bad second weekend, free-falling 83% to $4.4 million. Apparently, the hype for those extra scenes doesn't stretch beyond hardcore completists.
• Over in Bollywood, Drishyam: The Conclusion pulled $2.7 million from only 541 cinemas, a solid achievement. Meanwhile, Practical Magic 2 shed a third of its screens and came in at $2.6 million, bringing its North American running total to $64.6 million.
• The top 10 rounded out with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, adding another $2.45 million and creeping ever closer to the billion mark domestically ($954 million).
• Last place mention: Lionsgate’s much-hyped Beware Bouina managed only $550,000 total — not even enough to call it a cult hit.