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Not even a Tom Cruise-filled, all-stops-pulled press tour — including a GQ cover, a “New Heights” podcast appearance and a “Risky Business”-inspired jaunt down the “Jennifer Hudson Show” spirit tunnel — could keep “Digger”
from flatlining at the box office.
Warner Bros.’ R-rated black comedy generated $3.4 million from 3,321 North American theaters on Friday following a slew of negative reviews and divided word of mouth. The film is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest flops, with estimates of just $7.5 million domestically in its opening weekend. The film was greenlit at $125 million but ended up ballooning to $160 and $180 million after production ran long, according to knowledgeable sources. That’s a problem because the studio splits ticket sales with theater owners, meaning “Digger” is primed to lose many millions in its theatrical run.
Directed by Academy Award winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Digger” stars Cruise as a powerful oil tycoon whose company sparks an ecological calamity. Despite Cruise’s enduring star power, having anchored recent blockbusters like the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and 2022’s sensation “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Digger” will wind up as the latest misfire for Warner Bros. This year, the studio has siphoned off a string of duds including Maggie Gyllenhaal’s punk rock “The Bride!” and DC’s comic book adaptation “Supergirl.”
With general audiences rejecting “Digger,” Amazon MGM’s psycho-thriller “Verity” took the top spot on Friday with $15.1 million from 3,510 North American theaters. The movie is expected to make $33.6 million domestically through the weekend.
Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book of the same name, “Verity” centers around famed author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), who gets badly injured in a car accident, leaving her husband (Josh Hartnett) to hire a struggling writer (Dakota Johnson) to finish the remaining books. Michael Showalter directed. It’s Hoover’s fourth novel to hit the big screen, following 2024’s “It Ends With Us” (Sony), 2025’s “Regretting You” (Paramount), and 2026’s “Reminders of Him” (Universal).
Zach Cregger’s zombie horror “Resident Evil” landed in second place on Friday, grossing $3.62 million. Starring Austin Abrams as a medical courier who must contend with a zombie outbreak while making a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital, the Sony film looks to add $12 million by Sunday, bringing its domestic total to $124.395 million.
After “Digger’s” third-place finish, Paramount Pictures’ “The Heart of the Beast” followed with $3.15 million, bringing its cumulative gross to $38.39 million. The Brad Pitt-led adventure film was directed by David Ayer and stars the actor as a retired veteran who navigates a 58-mile trek to safety after he and his combat dog survive a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness.
Finally, in fifth, was A24’s “Primetime.” The film grossed $2.49 million on Friday and should pull in another $7.5 million by Sunday. The film’s opening weekend registered as the third-best for A24 behind “Backrooms” ($81.4 million) and “Civil War” ($25.5 million), and the Robert Pattinson-led drama has pulled in $28.58 million domestically thus far.
“Primetime” chronicles Chris Hansen’s time as the host of Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator.” While the film has received positive reviews and word of mouth since its debut at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, the real-life Hansen has been less than complimentary ahead of the film’s release; after seeing the film, Hansen called it “so bizarre and so in-and-out of reality,” as well as “detached from reality.”
