The biggest story at the North American box office this weekend was the spectacular collapse of Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger. The Warner Bros. release opened to just $8 million from 3,321 theaters, finishing in fifth place and falling well below the already-revised expectations heading into the weekend. Amazon MGM’s Verity, meanwhile, comfortably topped the chart with $32.62 million from 3,510 theaters, giving the Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson thriller a strong start despite mixed-to-negative reviews.
Digger had been one of the most closely watched releases of the weekend because of its combination of Tom Cruise, Oscar-winning filmmaker Iñárritu and a reported production budget running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Warner Bros. had initially hoped the film would open in the $18 million-$20 million range, but those expectations were repeatedly lowered as negative buzz mounted. By the time the film reached theaters, projections had fallen considerably, with some estimates placing the opening around $8 million-$12 million. The final $8 million result therefore landed at the very bottom of the revised range.
The result is particularly damaging because even the original $18 million-$20 million target would not have represented a healthy opening for a film of this scale. Box-office analysts had indicated that a production with Digger‘s reported costs would have needed an opening closer to $40 million to begin making sense theatrically. Instead, the film’s $8 million debut gives it a per-theater average of only $2,409, a weak figure for a nationwide release led by one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
The international market did little to improve the picture. Digger added approximately $12 million from overseas markets, giving the film a worldwide opening of around $20 million. The weak international performance is notable because Cruise has historically been a major global draw, particularly in action-driven theatrical releases. The film’s worldwide start therefore leaves it facing an extremely difficult theatrical run.
The film’s reported production budget is another major concern. Variety reports estimates of $160 million-$180 million, while other reports have placed the production cost closer to $125 million-$150 million. The higher figure does not include marketing, with global promotional spending estimated at approximately $100 million. Variety reports that the film could require around $300 million-$350 million worldwide to break even theatrically, depending on the final accounting.
That makes Digger one of the year’s most significant box-office disappointments. Its commercial problems were compounded by its reception. The film was met with largely unfavorable reviews, and audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore. Warner Bros. even attempted to turn some of the negative reaction into part of its marketing campaign, encouraging audiences to “decide for yourself” after critics had described the film negatively.
The weekend’s other major new release tells a very different story. Verity opened at No. 1 with $32.62 million, generating a strong $9,293 per-theater average across 3,510 locations. The film made more than four times Digger‘s domestic opening and also earned approximately $30 million internationally, taking its worldwide debut to around $62.6 million.
The performance is particularly notable because Verity has not been embraced by critics. The film currently carries a C+ CinemaScore and a 34% Rotten Tomatoes score, yet audiences turned out in significant numbers. The result again demonstrates the commercial strength of Colleen Hoover adaptations, which have developed a clearly defined audience while generally carrying much more manageable production budgets than major original studio films.
Verity is also now the second-biggest opening among theatrical adaptations of Hoover’s novels, behind Sony’s It Ends With Us, which debuted to $50 million in 2024. The latest film also outperformed the opening weekends of Regretting You and Reminders of Him. According to Variety, the opening weekend audience for Verity was 78% female, with the largest age group being moviegoers between 25 and 34.
Behind the two new releases, Sony’s Resident Evil continued its strong run. The video-game adaptation collected $12.5 million in its third weekend, declining 46% and bringing its North American total to approximately $124.9 million. The film has also performed well internationally and has now become one of Sony’s strongest theatrical performers of the current season.
Heart of the Beast held third place with $11 million in its second weekend, down 45%. The Brad Pitt-led survival thriller has now grossed approximately $38.4 million domestically and is approaching the $100 million mark worldwide. Its relatively strong hold gives the film a chance to continue building its theatrical total, although its $82 million production cost means international performance and staying power remain important.
A24’s Primetime remained in fourth place with $8 million in its second weekend. The Robert Pattinson-led psychological drama declined 58% from its opening and has now collected approximately $34.09 million domestically. Made for a reported $15 million, the film remains in a much healthier position financially than Digger despite their broadly similar weekend grosses.
Forgotten Island rounded out the weekend’s top six with $7.2 million, declining 45% in its second weekend. The film has now reached approximately $23.63 million domestically. Avengers: Endgame Encore suffered the weekend’s biggest decline among the major releases, falling 83% to $4.4 million in its second weekend. Despite the sharp drop, the re-release has helped Endgame reclaim the title of the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, narrowly moving ahead of Avatar after the latest theatrical run.
Further down the chart, Practical Magic 2 earned $2.66 million, while Spider-Man: Brand New Day added $2.45 million. The latter has now reached approximately $954.48 million in North America, leaving it roughly $45.5 million short of the $1 billion domestic milestone. The Odyssey added another $1.3 million from 662 theaters and has now reached approximately $620.46 million domestically.
Despite Digger‘s failure, the broader North American theatrical market remains in a strong position. Domestic box-office revenue for 2026 has reached approximately $7.95 billion, up about 19% from the same point in 2025 and only around $50 million short of the $8 billion milestone. The October 2-4 weekend itself generated approximately $99 million in domestic ticket sales, about 15% above the comparable weekend last year, even though it declined from the previous weekend.
The contrasting performances of Verity and Digger provide the clearest takeaway from the weekend. Verity, produced for a reported $40 million, opened to more than $32 million domestically despite weak reviews. Digger, meanwhile, combined one of Hollywood’s biggest stars with an acclaimed director and a reported nine-figure production budget, yet could manage only $8 million.
For Warner Bros., the result also arrives at a particularly significant moment. The studio’s acquisition by Paramount is scheduled to close this week, with Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy expected to leave the company. Digger therefore represents not only one of the studio’s biggest commercial disappointments of 2026 but also the latest example of the risks associated with its strategy of backing large-scale original films.
The weekend ultimately shows that the North American theatrical market itself is not the problem. Audiences continue to turn out in large numbers when a film connects with a clearly defined audience. The issue is increasingly the ability of individual films to justify their budgets. Verity found its audience and opened strongly, while Digger became the weekend’s clearest example of how quickly an expensive star-driven original can collapse when audience interest fails to materialize.
Top 10 North American Box Office — October 2-4, 2026
- Verity — $32,618,776
- Resident Evil — $12,500,000
- Heart of the Beast — $11,000,000
- Primetime — $8,000,085
- Digger — $8,000,000
- Forgotten Island — $7,200,000
- Avengers: Endgame Encore — $4,400,000
- Practical Magic 2 — $2,655,000
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day — $2,450,000
- The Odyssey — $1,300,000