Tom Cruise may still be one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, but even star power couldn’t save Digger this weekend. Warner Bros.’ R-rated dark comedy opened to just $8 million domestically, landing in fifth place and delivering one of the weekend’s biggest disappointments.
The film earned $20 million worldwide against a reported $125 million production budget, putting it on a difficult path toward profitability.
The soft debut came as Amazon MGM’s Verity easily took the top spot with $32.6 million domestically and $62.6 million worldwide. In the weeks leading up to release, interest in Verity had been climbing while expectations for Digger were moving in the opposite direction.
Directed by Michael Showalter and adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, Verity stars Dakota Johnson as struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh, who is hired to complete a bestselling series after its author, Verity Crawford, played by Anne Hathaway, is incapacitated. Josh Hartnett co-stars as Verity’s husband, Jeremy.
The film’s opening represents the strongest theatrical debut yet for a Hoover adaptation. Its $32.6 million start topped It Ends With Us, Regretting You and Reminders of Him, though critics have been far less enthusiastic than audiences. The film carries a Rotten Tomatoes critics score in the mid-30s, compared with an audience score around 70%.
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Sony’s Resident Evil held second place with $12.5 million in its third weekend, dropping 46%. The horror reboot has now earned $124.9 million domestically and $245.4 million worldwide after 17 days.
Paramount’s Heart of the Beast followed in third with $11 million in its second frame, bringing its totals to $38.4 million domestically and $98.7 million worldwide. The Brad Pitt-led film fell 45% from its opening weekend.
A24’s Primetime finished fourth with $8,000,085, beating Digger by just $85. The Robert Pattinson thriller has earned $34.1 million in North America after 10 days and, with its comparatively lean $15 million budget, is in a considerably stronger financial position than either Heart of the Beast or Digger.
For Digger, the numbers are especially painful because of the bet’s scale.
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the film casts Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a wealthy oil magnate whose reckless Arctic drilling triggers an environmental catastrophe. Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons and Michael Stuhlbarg round out the ensemble.
The role was viewed as a significant dramatic swing for Cruise, placing him far outside the action-franchise lane that has defined much of his recent career. Critics, however, have been mixed, with the film sitting at 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared with a 71% audience score.
Financially, the situation is even rougher. Based on its reported $125 million production budget, Digger would need roughly $313 million worldwide to reach theatrical profitability. With only $20 million globally after opening weekend, the climb ahead is steep.
Still, the broader box office picture remains encouraging. All films combined for $99 million over the weekend. That was down from the previous two frames but ahead of the comparable weekend in 2025, marking the third straight weekend in which 2026 outperformed the prior year. The year has now beaten 2025 in eight of the past 10 weekends. Pasted text
So while Digger may have been buried, the box office itself is still showing signs of life.
