On the cusp of the studio’s merger with Paramount, Warner Bros.’ ‘Digger’ flopped in its opening weekend, handing Tom Cruise one of the worst debuts of his career and serving as a bitter final note for Warner Bros. as a standalone studio.
Tom Cruise’ ‘Digger’ flops at box office
‘Digger’, one of the year’s biggest gambles, directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, grossed a paltry USD 8 million domestically. Cruise is typically a big draw overseas, but international sales, USD 12 million from 74 markets, were also weak.After reviews so bad that Warner Bros. opted to run “decide for yourself” ads, estimates for “Digger” had been revised down over the past week.It’s a painfully rough start for a movie that cost at least USD 125 million to make. Reports have pegged the production budget closer to USD 150 million. The marketing spend is estimated at another USD 100 million.‘Digger’ had been positioned as a potential awards-season heavyweight, dated almost exactly the same as Warner Bros.’ ‘One Battle After Another’ was last year. The film is a similarly politically charged release that handed a large budget to a top filmmaker working from an original story.But this big swing by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy won’t pay off as well as ‘One Battle After Another’. It grossed USD 213.2 million worldwide and, more importantly, won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
‘Digger’ flops amid Hollywood transformation
The disappointing opening comes just as Paramount Skydance is closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. After U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin on Wednesday approved the USD 110 billion deal, Paramount said it would close the merger on Tuesday.In a flush year for Hollywood, Warner Bros. has failed to get one film to USD 100 million domestically, though its December release, ‘Dune: Part III’, will easily cross that. De Luca and Abdy are expected to depart Warner Bros. this week. Mass layoffs are anticipated to follow.Critics (51% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) slammed ‘Digger’ as a strained climate change farce, though Cruise’s over-the-top performance was received more warmly. Audiences agreed, giving it a “C+” CinemaScore.Cruise has spent most of the last decade starring in ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies and ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, both franchises that have allowed him to remain a top action hero into his 60s. The 64-year-old’s last major box-office disappointment was 2017’s ‘The Mummy’, which grossed USD 409.2 million worldwide on a USD 195 million budget.To help sell ‘Digger’, Cruise pulled out all the stops. He even granted his first lengthy magazine interview in years.
‘Verity’ tops box office
No. 1 in North American theaters instead went to Amazon MGM’s ‘Verity’, extending the streak for Colleen Hoover adaptations at the box office. It debuted with USD 32.6 million. The film, directed by Michael Showalter, stars Dakota Johnson as a writer hired to ghostwrite a book series by an incapacitated author (Anne Hathaway).The film’s success has helped leading lady Anne add a page to the record books, by scorring three No. 1 films in a year, the most for any actress. The actress first topped the box office early this year, with the release of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, she also starred in ‘The Odyssey’.
‘Avengers: Endgame’ retakes all-time crown
Last weekend’s top film, ‘Avengers Endgame: Encore’, slid to seventh place with USD 4.4 million domestically and USD 14.4 million overseas. But the Marvel re-release’s second week allowed ‘Endgame’ to just nudge ahead of ‘Avatar’ to reclaim the title of highest grossing film of all time, not accounting for inflation. The two films have traded spots in recent years with re-releases. ‘Endgame’ now tallies USD 2.9255 billion, while ‘Avatar’ has USD 2.9237 billion.
‘Resident Evil ‘, ‘Heart of the Beast’ and ‘Primetime’ take top 5 spots
The rest of the top-sellers in cinemas over the weekend were holdovers: Zach Cregger’s video game adaptation ‘Resident Evil’ for Sony Pictures; Lance Oppenheim’s A24 drama ‘Primetime’, with 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 treks through the Alaskan wilderness with his combat dog after a plane crash.In its third week, ‘Resident Evil’ came in second with USD 12.5 million. ‘Heart of the Beast’ followed with USD 11 million. And ‘Primetime’ collected USD 8 million in its second weekend.
Top 10 movies at North American box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, 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. “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: Brand New Day,” $2.5 million.
