In “Digger,” Tom Cruise plays a powerful oil tycoon who is preparing for an ecological disaster of epic proportions. But nothing could have prepared him for the unfolding disaster at the box office, where “Digger” collapsed with an embarrassing $8 million from 3,321 North American theaters. Rivals believe that figure will be closer to $7.5 million when final figures are known on Monday.
With a production budget of $160-180 million, “Digger” will not only become one of the biggest bombs of the year, but potentially of all time. Warner Bros. hoped that the combination of Tom Cruise, one of the world’s biggest movie stars, and director Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose critical and commercial victories include “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” would propel at least initial revenues to between $18 million and $20 million. And even those ticket sales would have been financially disastrous for the mega-budget satirical film. Box office experts estimate that a film of this scale would have needed a debut close to $40 million to justify its price tag. These projections were revised downward (and revised downward again) after a deluge of bad buzz. The R-rated satire debuted in fifth place behind another newcomer, the psychological thriller “Verity” from Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, and three holdovers, including “Resident Evil” and “Heart of the Beast.”
“For a black comedy, the numbers aren’t bad. But black comedies are small movies, and this isn’t a small movie. It’s a Tom Cruise movie,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Re. “Comedy walks a fine line, and when it misses, it lack.”
Reviews and word of mouth for “Digger” were so negative that Warner Bros. attempted to appropriate the unfavorable press. In a recent ad, the studio asked moviegoers to “decide for themselves” after critics called the film “unpleasant” and “disconcerting.” Another marketing spot suggested that only American audiences didn’t like “Digger.” However, the film also flopped at the international box office with a tragic $12 million from 73 international markets for a global debut of $20 million.
“Digger” has always been a gamble as a rare big-budget, star-driven original comedy. Warner Bros. Greenlighted the film for $125 million, but the price climbed after lengthy production. Since the studio spent an additional $100 million on global marketing efforts, “Digger” has a theatrical break-even point of about $350 million worldwide, according to executives familiar with similar films. A spokesperson for Warner Bros. retorted, saying the film’s break-even point was $300 million. Regardless, “Digger” is poised to lose at least $150 million to $200 million in theaters. (Theatre owners keep about half of the ticket sales.) The studio’s profitability will take even longer because Cruise receives first dollar gross, meaning he earns a percentage of the revenue before the studio recoups costs.
“Even with respectable ancillary revenues based on the pedigree of the film,” says Gross, referring to revenue streams such as digital rentals, sales, streaming and TV licensing, “the film is going to lose a lot of money.”
“Digger” continues a dismal year for Warner Bros. — after experiencing duds like “The Bride” and “Supergirl” — and the timing was terrible. The acquisition of Warner Bros. by Paramount should be finalized next week. News broke Friday that Warner co-heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy will leave the studio when the merger is finalized on October 6. The duo has enjoyed tremendous box office success in 2025, with a string of stellar hits including “Sinners,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “Weapons.” But after pushing a number of big changes to 2026, not a single film has managed to top $100 million domestically.
This time last year, few in Hollywood could have expected “Verity” to trump “Digger” at the domestic box office. Amazon MGM’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling book landed the top spot with a solid $32.6 million from 3,510 theaters. This is Hathaway’s third No. 1 opening of 2026 following this summer’s blockbusters “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “The Odyssey.” A heavily pregnant Hathaway recently joked that she will now disappear for the rest of the year.
“Verity” raked in an additional $30 million at the international box office, bringing its worldwide total to $62.5 million.
Directed by “The Big Sick” filmmaker Michael Showalter, “Verity” centers on famous author Verity Crawford (Hathaway) who is seriously injured in a car accident, leaving her husband (Josh Hartnett) to hire a struggling writer (Johnson) to finish the remaining books in the popular series. Reviews and word-of-mouth have been negative; the film earned a “C+” rating on CinemaScore and 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, “Verity” was produced for $40 million and is expected to generate profits for Amazon MGM.
“It’s a great opening,” Gross says. “The reception does not harm the film. The public is present in large numbers.”
Hollywood was eager to exploit Hoover’s novels for the big screen because her work speaks to an underserved female demographic, and the film adaptations feature modest production budgets, making them low-risk bets for studios. “Verity’s” opening weekend audience was 78 percent female, while the largest demo (38 percent) was 25 to 34 years old. Among Hoover adaptations, “Verity” has the second-biggest debut behind Sony’s 2024 hit “It Ends With Us” ($50 million) and ahead of Paramount’s 2025 film “Regretting You” ($13.6 million) and Universal’s 2026 film “Reminders of Him” ($17 million). “It Ends With Us” is by far the trio’s biggest hit, grossing $350 million worldwide.
While the general public rejected “Digger,” Sony’s video game reboot, “Resident Evil,” remained in second place with $12.5 million in its third weekend of release. So far, the R-rated film, directed by “Weapons” filmmaker Zach Cregger, has grossed a solid $124.8 million domestically and $215 million globally, against a budget of $75 million.
“Resident Evil” is Sony’s second straight box office win following “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which has now grossed a staggering $954 million in North America and $2.5 billion worldwide. It is the third highest-grossing film in history behind “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.925 billion) and “Avatar” ($2.923 billion). Thanks to Disney’s recent re-release of “Avengers: Endgame,” which raked in a whopping $126 million over two weekends, giant Marvel once again ranks as the biggest release of all time. Disney re-released the blockbuster (with additional footage) to generate hype for “Avengers: Doomsday,” which hits the big screen in December.
Third place went to “Heart of the Beast” with $11 million in its second release, a 45% drop from its debut. So far, the Brad Pitt-led survival thriller has grossed $38.3 million in North America and $98.6 million worldwide and will cross the $100 million mark shortly. Since Paramount spent $82 million to produce the highly praised film, “Heart of the Beast” will rely on its staying power and international box office interest to salvage its theatrical release.
“Primetime,” a psychological drama starring Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen, landed at No. 4 with $8 million in its second weekend. This is a steeper 58% drop from its strong opening of $19 million. So far, “Primetime” has raked in $34 million in North America against a modest $15 million budget. The film, supported by A24, has not yet been released in most international territories.
Through this weekend, the domestic box office stands at $7.95 billion, up 19% from the same point in 2025, according to Rentrak. Today, the market is about $50 million away from the $8 billion mark – a milestone the industry only reached last year in December.
“September certainly played its role,” says Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Rentrak, referring to releases like “Resident Evil” and “Primetime.” “For a month that has often been seen as a transitional period in the theatrical calendar, this is another strong indication of the depth and durability of the 2026 market.”
Gn entert
