NEW YORK — On the verge of the studio’s merger with Paramount, Warner Bros.’ “Digger” flopped on its opening weekend, giving Tom Cruise one of the worst debuts of his career and as an independent studio, Warner Bros. It was a bitter final note for him.
Instead, the No. 1 hit in North American theaters was Amazon MGM’s “Verity,” extending the box office run of Colleen Hoover adaptations. It debuted with $32.6 million. Directed by Michael Showalter, the film stars Dakota Johnson as a writer hired to ghostwrite a book series for an incapacitated author (Anne Hathaway).
However, all eyes were on how “Digger,” one of the biggest gambles of the year, would perform. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s critically panned satire grossed a paltry $8 million domestically. Cruises generally attract great interest abroad, but international sales of $12 million from 74 markets were also weak.
Estimates for “Digger” were revised downwards last week after reviews were so poor that Warner Bros. opted to run “judge for yourself” commercials.
It’s a rocky start for a movie that cost at least $125 million to make. Reports indicate that the production budget was close to $150 million. Marketing spend is estimated to be another $100 million.
“Digger”, Warner Bros. With a date around the same time as , it was positioned as a potential awards season heavyweight. “One War in a Row” was last year. “Digger” is a similarly politically charged film that provides a big budget to a top filmmaker working from an original story.
However, Warner Bros. This big move by Motion Picture Group co-presidents Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy won’t work as well as “One Battle in a Row.” It grossed $213.2 million worldwide and, more importantly, won best picture at the Academy Awards.
Disappointing opening, Paramount Skydance’s Warner Bros. It happened just as it was completing its acquisition of Discovery. After U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the $110 billion deal on Wednesday, Paramount said it would complete the merger on Tuesday.
In an eventful year for Hollywood, Warner Bros. has failed to propel a film to $100 million domestically, but “Dune: Part III,” released in December, will easily surpass that. De Luca and Abdy are expected to leave Warner Bros. this week. Mass layoffs are expected to follow.
“‘Digger’ crashed this weekend, and Paramount and new management at Warner Bros., David Ellison, Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will soon decide what kind of movies they want from WB,” wrote film consultant David A. Gross, who issued a news release on box office numbers. “Paramount doesn’t have a history of making these kinds of big, auteur-driven movies anytime soon; that strategy appears to be over.”
Critics panned “Digger” (51% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) as a plodding climate change farce, but Cruise’s outstanding performance was more warmly received. Audiences agreed, giving it a “C+” CinemaScore.
Cruise has spent much of the last decade starring in “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun: Maverick”; both ensured that he remained a top action hero well into his 60s. The 64-year-old actor’s last major box office disappointment was 2017’s “The Mummy,” which grossed $409.2 million worldwide on a $195 million budget.
Cruise went out of his way to help sell “Digger.” He even gave his first full-length magazine interview in years.
Last weekend’s most watched movie, “Avengers Endgame: Encore”, fell to seventh place with 4.4 million dollars domestically and 14.4 million dollars abroad. But the second week of Marvel’s relaunch allowed “Endgame” to jump just ahead of “Avatar” and reclaim the title of highest-grossing movie ever, without accounting for inflation. The two films have been re-released and switched places in recent years. “Endgame” is currently worth $2.9255 billion, while “Avatar” is worth $2.9237 billion.
The rest of the weekend’s best sellers in theaters were those left behind: “Resident Evil,” Zach Cregger’s video game adaptation for Sony Pictures; Lance Oppenheim’s A24 drama “Primetime” stars 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 goes for a walk in the Alaskan wilderness with his war dog after a plane crash.
In its third week, “Resident Evil” came in second with $12.5 million. “Heart of the Beast” followed with $11 million. And “Primetime” collected $8 million in its second weekend.
This list, along with final domestic numbers released Monday, includes estimated ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian theaters from Friday through Sunday, according to Rentrak:
1. “Verity,” $32.6 million.
2. “Resident Evil,” $12.5 million.
3. “Heart of the Beast” $11 million.
4. “Primetime,” $8 million.
5. “Digger,” $8 million.
6. “The Forgotten Island,” $7.2 million.
7. “Avengers: Endgame: Encore,” $4.4 million.
8. “Drishyam: The Conclusion,” $2.7 million.
9. “Practical Magic 2,” $2.7 million.
10. “Spider-Man: All-New Day,” $2.5 million.