Tom Cruise's 'Digger' Heads for His Lowest Opening in 19 Years

Friday estimates put the Alejandro G. Iñárritu satire near $10 million, while Colleen Hoover's 'Verity' aims for about $32 million.

Tom Cruise's 'Digger,' an R-rated Alejandro G. Iñárritu satire, is headed for about $10 million in its opening weekend, his smallest debut in 19 years.

The weekend belongs to 'Verity,' the Colleen Hoover thriller starring Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway, which is on pace for first place and about $32 million, Deadline projected on Friday, October 2. 'Verity' is playing 3,510 theaters. 'Digger,' in 3,321, is tracking for fourth.

Those figures are Friday estimates, built on one day of ticket sales plus Thursday previews, and they can move by Sunday. Deadline had 'Digger' taking in about $4 million on Friday, with $1.2 million of that from previews. It also said rival studios saw the opening landing lower, somewhere in the high single digits.

Variety's preview tally showed the same gap: $1.2 million for 'Digger' on Thursday night against $4.5 million for 'Verity.' That's nearly four to one, and the 'Verity' number included early-access screenings.

The last time a Cruise opening came in this soft was 2007, when 'Lions for Lambs,' a drama directed by Robert Redford, started at $6.7 million in North America. That movie reportedly cost $35 million. 'Digger' reportedly cost Warner Bros. somewhere between $125 million and more than $160 million.

The closer comparisons aren't Cruise movies at all. They're expensive swings by big-name directors. 'Digger' sold fewer preview tickets than Warner Bros.' own 'One Battle After Another,' which drew $3.1 million in previews last fall on its way to a $22 million opening. It sold more than Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis,' the $125 million self-financed epic that made $770,000 in previews. 'Megalopolis' opened to $4 million in 2024.

The people who did show up for 'Digger' liked it more than the critics did. Its Rotten Tomatoes audience score sat at 71% on Friday, against 51% from critics. Variety ran an opinion piece arguing that the movie's twist is what keeps it from being a complete disaster.

Critics haven't warmed to 'Verity' either, and Hoover adaptations have never needed them. 'It Ends with Us' scored 55% with critics and 87% with audiences. It opened to $50 million in 2024. 'Verity' trailed that movie's $7 million in previews but more than doubled the $1.9 million for 'Reminders of Him.' That one opened to $17.9 million earlier this year.

The chart above 'Digger' is its own small humiliation for Warner Bros. Sony's 'Resident Evil,' from director Zach Cregger, is projected for second place with about $11.5 million. It's in its third weekend. Just ahead of 'Digger,' in third, is Paramount's 'The Heart of the Beast,' a Brad Pitt survival movie about a Green Beret and his dog. It's holding at about $10.3 million in its second weekend.

Paramount is Warner Bros.' new owner. It rejected the contracts of the studio's film chiefs, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who are leaving the same weekend 'Digger' arrived, Deadline reported. Their run included 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another,' which won Best Picture.

None of it dents the catalog much. Cruise has made 53 movies over 45 years. Together they've grossed $14 billion, Deadline counted, and it argued that every new release lifts the value of the whole library, even when the new one misses.

Source: deadline.com, retrieved October 3, 2026.