Tom Cruise’s Digger Bombs opens at the box office; Hoover’s Verity No. 1

Tom Cruise’s big budget Excavator finds itself in quite a hole with its opening weekend at the box office.

From filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Excavator grossed $3.3 million on Friday, including Thursday previews, while the film is expected to release with around $8 million from 3,300 North American theaters. That’s even below the measly $12 million to $15 million range that Warner Bros. had projected and would represent an overwhelming launch for the project which carries a production budget of $125 million. Excavator heads for lowest opening weekend for Cruise since 2007 war drama Lions for lambswhich opened with $6.7 million on a much smaller budget.

With a CinemaScore C+ from the public which marks one of the worst marks of the star’s career (and is the same as that of Lions for lambs), Excavator is clearly a polarizing title and marks a huge creative swing, as Cruise has transformed himself into an overweight, balding oil tycoon. Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Sandra Hüller also star in the satire centered on Cruise’s main character causing a natural disaster.

Although the studio hopes awards buzz could help the film gain traction as audiences discover it, critics are divided, with Excavator holding a 51 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. In his criticism for The Hollywood Reporterchief film critic David Rooney deemed it “dead and buried”.

Excavator marks an inauspicious final release for Warner Bros. as a standalone studio, while Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion merger with the studio is expected to be finalized on October 6. News broke a few days ago that film bosses at Warner Bros. Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were leaving the studio, with Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein ready to take over. De Luca and Abdy’s dazzling 2025 included famed Oscar winners’ success One battle after another And Sinnerswhile the 2026 releases saw much less encouraging results.

Although Cruise was known earlier in his career for taking risks with feature films directed by filmmakers, ranging from Born July 4 has Magnoliafans of the star have recently become more accustomed to seeing him in an action-packed franchise, and indeed, he will begin filming soon Days of Thunder 2. As Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian said THR“We need to place our expectations around what this movie is and what it’s trying to be, rather than what Tom Cruise’s name might normally bring to the box office.”

Amazon MGM Studios’ Truth is expected to win the weekend as the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel kicks off the spooky season. Starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, director Michael Showalter’s thriller raked in $15.1 million Friday, including Thursday previews, and will finish the film at No. 1 domestically with an estimated $33.6 million from 3,510 North American theaters.

As Excavator, Truth earned a disappointing C+ CinemaScore from audiences for the story of struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson) accepting a job as a ghostwriter for acclaimed author Verity Crawford (Hathaway). Truth holds a 34 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, with critic Richard Lawson writing for THR that it is a “literary failure”.

Sony takes second place in its third image. resident Evilwhich is expected to gross $12 million, bringing its domestic total to approximately $124.3 million. Austin Abrams is leading director Zach Cregger’s successful reboot of the video game property.

Paramount Heart of the Beast brings in around $11 million in its second weekend, grossing around $38 million. David Ayer’s film stars Brad Pitt as a special forces officer stranded with his fighting dog in the wilderness.

Also in its second frame is the A24 Prime timewhich came in at $8 million, bringing its domestic total to around $34 million. Robert Pattinson plays journalist Chris Hansen in Lance Oppenheim’s fact-based thriller that will likely be placed above Excavator for the weekend.

Another newcomer getting wide release this weekend is from Lionsgate. Watch out for Boiúnawhich opens quietly with around $500,000 from 1,121 North American theaters. Mike P. Nelson, who was chosen to direct the next Sawdirected Kiana Madeira and Jessica Rothe in the horror offering about a giant snake. Watch out for Boiúna has a review score of 55 on Rotten Tomatoes.

Notable releases next weekend include the Jessica Chastain-directed Chiller Other mom and that of Aaron Sorkin The social report.