Tom Cruise's 'Digger' Flops in Opening Weekend, 'Verity' Takes Top Box Office Spot

Warner Bros.' "Digger," one of the studio's biggest gambles this year, faltered in its opening weekend, marking one of the weakest debuts of Tom Cruise's career. The film, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, grossed $8 million domestically and $12 million internationally from 74 markets, falling short of expectations.

Taking the top spot at the North American box office was Amazon MGM's "Verity," which earned $32.6 million in its debut weekend. The film, based on Colleen Hoover's novel and directed by Michael Showalter, stars Dakota Johnson as a writer hired to complete a book series for an incapacitated author played by Anne Hathaway.

"Digger" faced significant headwinds, including negative reviews and a hefty production budget estimated between $125 million and $150 million, with an additional $100 million for marketing. Critics panned the film as a "strained climate change farce," though Cruise's performance received some warmer reception. Audiences gave "Digger" a "C+" CinemaScore. The film's disappointing performance follows a pattern for Warner Bros. this year, as the studio has yet to release a film that has crossed $100 million domestically, although "Dune: Part III" is expected to achieve this milestone.

The underperformance of "Digger" comes as Paramount Skydance is finalizing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The $110 billion deal was approved by a U.S. District Judge and is set to close next week. Industry analysts anticipate significant changes at Warner Bros. following the merger, including potential departures of current leadership and mass layoffs.

"'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," said David A. Gross, a film consultant. "Paramount does not have a recent history of making big, auteur-driven films like this — that strategy appears to be over and out."

Cruise, who has largely focused on successful franchises like "Mission: Impossible" and "Top Gun: Maverick" in recent years, last experienced a major box-office disappointment with 2017's "The Mummy." He had actively promoted "Digger," granting his first lengthy magazine interview in years to support the film.

In other box office news, "Avengers Endgame: Encore" slid to seventh place with $4.4 million domestically. However, the Marvel re-release's cumulative total allowed "Endgame" to reclaim the title of the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing "Avatar" with a total of $2.9255 billion. Rounding out the top weekend earners were "Resident Evil" ($12.5 million), "Heart of the Beast" ($11 million), and "Primetime" ($8 million).