With production budget of $160 to $180 million, Digger will wind up as one of the biggest bombs of the year but potentially of all time.

Warner was hoping the combination of Tom Cruise, one of the biggest movie stars, and director Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose critical and commercial wins include “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” would at least propel initial grosses to $18 million to $20 million. And even those ticket sales would have been financially disastrous for the mega-budgeted film.

Box office experts say a movie of this size would have needed a debut near $40 million to justify its price tag. Those projections were revised down (and revised down again) after a deluge of bad buzz. The R-rated satire opened in fifth place behind another newcomer, Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson’s psychological thriller Verity and three holdovers, including “Resident Evil” and “Heart of the Beast.”

Another marketing spot suggested that only American audiences disliked “Digger.”

However the movie was equally rejected at the international box office with a tragic $12 million from 73 international markets for a global start of $20 million.

“Even with respectable ancillary income based on the film’s pedigree,” says Gross, referring to revenue streams like digital rental, sales, streaming and TV licensing, “the movie is going to lose a lot of money.”

Digger extends a dismal year for Warner — having fielded such misfires as “The Bride” and “Supergirl” — and the timing was terrible as Paramount’s acquisition of Warner is set to close next week.

News broke on Friday that Warner co-chief’s Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy are leaving the studio when the merger closes on Oct. 6. The duo enjoyed a terrific box office run in 2025, with stellar string of hits including “Sinners,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “Weapons.” But after pushing a number of big swings into 2026, not a single film has managed to cross $100 million domestically.

Amazon MGM’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-seller has landed in first place with a solid $32.6 million from 3,510 theaters. It ranks as Hathaway’s third No. 1 opening of 2026 after this summer’s blockbusters “The Devil Wears Prada 2″ and “The Odyssey.”

Directed by “The Big Sick” filmmaker Michael Showalter, “Verity” centers around famed author Verity Crawford (Hathaway) who gets badly injured in a car accident, leaving her husband (Josh Hartnett) to hire a struggling writer (Johnson) to complete the remaining books in the popular series. Reviews and word-of-mouth has been negative; the film was saddled with a “C+” grade on CinemaScore and 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, “Verity” was produced for $40 million and is expected to turn a profit for Amazon MGM.

Hollywood has been eager to mine Hoover’s novels for the big screen because her work caters to an underserved female demographic, and the film adaptations carry modest production budgets, making them low-risk bets for studios.

Opening weekend crowds for “Verity” were 78% female, while the largest age demo (38%) were between 25 and 34 years old. Among Hoover’s adaptations, “Verity” registers the second-biggest debut behind Sony’s 2024 sleeper hit “It Ends With Us” ($50 million) and ahead of Paramount’s 2025 film “Regretting You” (13.6 million) and Universal’s 2026 movie “Reminders of Him” ($17 million). “It Ends With Us” is the highest-grossing of the trio by far with $350 million globally.

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 movie, directed by Zach Cregger of “Weapons” fame, has generated a strong $124.8 million domestically and $215 million globally against a $75 million budget.

“Resident Evil” is the second consecutive box office win for Sony following “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which has now generated a staggering $954 million in North America and $2.5 billion globally. It’s the third-highest grossing movie in history behind “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.925 billion) and “Avatar” ($2.923 billion).

Thanks to Disney’s recent re-release of “Avengers: Endgame,” which has collected a huge $126 million in two weekends, the Marvel behemoth once again ranks as the biggest release of all time. Disney reissued the blockbuster (with extra footage) to generate hype for “Avengers: Doomsday,” which lands on the big screen in December.

Brad Pitt’s Heart of the Beast

“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. That’s a steeper 58% drop from its strong $19 million opening. So far, “Primetime” has amassed $34 million in America against a modest $15 million budget. The movie, backed by A24, has yet to open in most international territories.