On cusp of merger, Digger bombs for Warner Bros, Verity takes No. 1 at box office

NEW YORK - On the cusp of the studio's merger with Paramount, Warner Bros.' Digger flopped in its opening weekend, handing Tom Cruise one of the worst debuts of his career and serving as a bitter final note for Warner Bros. as a standalone studio.

No. 1 in North American theatres instead went to Amazon MGM's Verity, extending the streak for Colleen Hoover adaptations at the box office. It debuted with US$32.6 million (S$42 million). The film, directed by Michael Showalter, stars Dakota Johnson as a writer hired to ghostwrite a book series by an incapacitated author (Anne Hathaway).

But all eyes were on how Digger, one of the year's biggest gambles, would perform. Alejandro G. Inarritu's critically panned satire grossed a paltry US$8 million domestically. Cruise is typically a big draw overseas, but international sales, US$12 million from 74 markets, were also weak.

After reviews so bad that Warner Bros. opted to run "decide for yourself" ads, estimates for Digger had been revised down over the past week.

It's a painfully rough start for a movie that cost at least US$125 million to make. Reports have pegged the production budget closer to US$150 million. The marketing spend is estimated at another US$100 million.

Digger had been positioned as a potential awards-season heavyweight, dated almost exactly the same as Warner Bros.' One Battle After Another was last year. Digger is a similarly politically charged release that handed a large budget to a top filmmaker working from an original story.

But this big swing by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy won't pay off as well as One Battle After Another. It grossed US$213.2 million worldwide and, more importantly, won best picture at the Academy Awards.

Digger flops at a moment of Hollywood transformation

The disappointing opening comes just as Paramount Skydance is closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. After US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin on Wednesday (Sept 30) approved the US$110 billion deal, Paramount said it would close the merger on Tuesday.

In a flush year for Hollywood, Warner Bros. has failed to get one film to US$100 million domestically, though its December release, Dune: Part III, will easily cross that. De Luca and Abdy are expected to depart Warner Bros. this week. Mass layoffs are anticipated to follow.

"Digger collapsed this weekend and the new management of the combined Paramount and Warner Bros., David Ellison and Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will soon decide what kind of movies they want from WB," wrote David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office figures. "Paramount does not have a recent history of making big, auteur-driven films like this - that strategy appears to be over and out."

Critics (51 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) slammed Digger as a strained climate change farce, though Cruise's over-the-top performance was received more warmly. Audiences agreed, giving it a C+ CinemaScore.

Cruise has spent most of the last decade starring in Mission: Impossible movies and Top Gun: Maverick, both franchises that have allowed him to remain a top action hero into his 60s. The 64-year-old's last major box-office disappointment was 2017's The Mummy, which grossed US$409.2 million worldwide on a US$195 million budget.

To help sell Digger, Cruise pulled out all the stops. He even granted his first lengthy magazine interview in years.

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Avengers: Endgame retakes all-time crown

Last weekend's top film, Avengers Endgame: Encore, slid to seventh place with US$4.4 million domestically and US$14.4 million overseas. But the Marvel re-release's second week allowed Endgame to just nudge ahead of Avatar to reclaim the title of highest grossing film ever, not accounting for inflation. The two films have traded spots in recent years with re-releases. Endgame now tallies US$2.9255 billion, while Avatar has US$2.9237 billion.

The rest of the top-sellers in cinemas over the weekend were holdovers: Zach Cregger's video game adaptation Resident Evil for Sony Pictures; Lance Oppenheim's A24 drama Primetime, with Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen; and Paramount's Heart of the Beast, starring Brad Pitt as a retired veteran who treks through the Alaskan wilderness with his combat dog after a plane crash.

In its third week, Resident Evil came in second with US$12.5 million. Heart of the Beast followed with US$11 million. And Primetime collected US$8 million in its second weekend.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Rentrak:

1. Verity, US$32.6 million.

2. Resident Evil, US$12.5 million.

3. Heart of the Beast, US$11 million.

4. Primetime, US$8 million.

5. Digger, US$8 million.

6. Forgotten Island, US$7.2 million.

7. Avengers: Endgame: Encore, US$4.4 million.

8. Drishyam: The Conclusion, US$2.7 million.

9. Practical Magic 2, US$2.7 million.

10. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, US$2.5 million.

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