Verity Recoups While Digger Becomes Skydance’s First Invoice

Amazon MGM’s Verity opened to $32.6 million, and Warner Bros. closed its run as a standalone studio with Tom Cruise’s Digger at $8 million. The October 2-4 weekend was the last theatrical frame Warner Bros. released on its own, with Paramount Skydance set to close a $110 billion deal on October 6.

The cheaper film recouped. The expensive one became the first receipt on the new owner’s desk.

Warner’s Last Standalone Film Opened Into a Sale

Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, co-chiefs of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group since 2022, learned they would not join the merged company from press reports, then from a call with Skydance chief David Ellison. Their last day was set for October 6, the same date the deal was scheduled to close. Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, who run Paramount’s film group, take both studios.

Digger, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and starring Cruise as oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, was the last Warner Bros. title dated before that close. Ellison told the outgoing pair the combined company is carrying about $80 billion in debt and had to restructure. They were not offered a producing deal. Deputies Jesse Ehrman and Mike Ireland were left to mind the slate for now.

THE WARNER HANDOVER

1. August 29, 2026: Cruise posts that he and Anne Hathaway will make a Days of Thunder sequel for Paramount, dated June 2, 2028.
2. October 2, 2026: Exit news on De Luca and Abdy lands as Digger opens in 3,321 theaters, including IMAX.
3. October 2-4, 2026: Verity takes No. 1 with $32.6 million; Digger finishes fifth at $8 million.
4. October 6, 2026: Paramount Skydance is set to close the Warner Bros. Discovery purchase, and the film chiefs’ last day arrives with it.

A California settlement tied to the deal requires the combined company to release 30 films a year. That is a volume mandate, not a license for another $180 million original that audiences skipped.

What $160 Million Bought Across 3,321 Theaters

Warner Bros. greenlit Digger at $125 million. Production then ran long, including a delay after John Goodman was hurt on set, and the cost rose to $160 million to $180 million. Marketing is estimated at another $100 million. Sunday studio estimates gave it $8 million from 3,321 theaters, a $2,409 per-screen average, plus $12 million from 74 overseas markets for a $20 million worldwide start. People tracking similar films have put the studio’s likely loss near $150 million.

THE DIGGER COST STACK

• Greenlight: Warner Bros. approved the film at $125 million.
• Final production: Costs climbed to $160 million to $180 million after delays.
• Marketing: Global promotion is estimated at about $100 million more.
• Opening: $8 million domestic and $12 million overseas, $20 million in all.
• Large format: IMAX contributed $2.1 million, or 26.3% of the North American total.

That is Cruise’s lowest opening since 2007’s Lions for Lambs, which started at $6.7 million on a $35 million budget when he was third-billed. As a lead, it is his weakest wide start in decades. Iñárritu had not had a film in theaters since The Revenant in 2015, and every prior wide title of his had been platformed first. Digger went wide on day one and still took the second-largest share of U.S. showtimes, which only made the empty seats louder.

Old-Age Makeup and a C+ Grade

Rotten Tomatoes has Digger at 51% among critics and 71% among audiences. CinemaScore gave it a C+, and PostTrak’s definite recommend sat at 47%. The crowd that did buy a ticket was 73% male and 60% between 18 and 34, the Gen Z slice Iñárritu has said he made the movie for. Coasts accounted for 48% of the gross, above their usual share, and AMC Lincoln Square led the country at about $77,000 through Saturday.

The sell never matched the movie. RelishMix tracked social word of mouth falling from 8.1 out of 10 in mid-September to 6.4 just before release, with viewers saying a three-minute trailer still did not explain the plot. Cruise is buried in old-age makeup as Rockwell, so the campaign could not lean on the face that sold Top Gun: Maverick. Warner Bros. kept the film off the festival circuit, then ran “decide for yourself” ads, and on October 5 the studio account was still calling it the most divisive film of the year.

Cruise posted on Saturday without mentioning the gross.

DIGGER is officially in theaters and I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for your dedication, hard work, and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we… pic.twitter.com/3YBblCnL3E

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) October 3, 2026

#TheGrade is in and it's a C+ for #Digger.https://t.co/h6K6WjnUlV pic.twitter.com/SOjdOKr6RT

— CinemaScore (@CinemaScore) October 3, 2026

Verity Earns Its $40 Million Back in Three Days

Michael Showalter’s take on Colleen Hoover’s novel, with Verity filmmaking and cast credits listing Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, cost Amazon MGM a $40 million production budget. It opened in 3,510 theaters to $32.6 million, a $9,293 per-screen average, and added $30 million from 70 overseas markets for $62.6 million worldwide. The three-day split was $15.1 million Friday, including $4.5 million in Thursday previews, then $10 million Saturday and $7.5 million Sunday.

Critics were not kind. Rotten Tomatoes lists 33% positive from 135 reviews, with a 4.9 average, and Metacritic is at 45. CinemaScore matched Digger at C+. PostTrak’s definite recommend was 50%. The people who showed up did not wait for a fresh score. The audience was 78% female, with 25-to-34-year-olds at 38%, and the film ranked among the top theaters in Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Corpus Christi. Premium large formats, excluding IMAX, were 28% of the weekend.

Amazon already had a 2026 theatrical win in Project Hail Mary, which took an $80.5 million March opening on a $200 million budget and about $680 million worldwide. Verity is a different bet: a mid-budget R-rated thriller aimed at Hoover’s readers, with Sony handling overseas. It Ends With Us remains the author’s high-water mark at about $351 million worldwide after a $50 million debut. Reminders of Him opened at $18.0 million and finished near $48.6 million domestic. Verity’s start sits between those two and already covers the negative cost before streaming on Prime Video.

Hathaway has now opened three films at No. 1 in 2026, after The Devil Wears Prada 2 ($220.55 million domestic) and The Odyssey. Verity is her fifth release of the year. Johnson’s $32.6 million is her best domestic debut since Fifty Shades Freed opened to $38.6 million.

The Rest of a $99 Million Weekend

Sunday studio estimates put the domestic weekend at $99 million, down 22.4% from the prior frame and up 18.9% from the same weekend in 2025. Holdovers did the work Digger did not.

SUNDAY STUDIO ESTIMATES, OCTOBER 2-4

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, in its third weekend for Sony, added $12.5 million to reach $124.9 million. Paramount’s Heart of the Beast, with Brad Pitt, held at $11 million for $38.4 million after 10 days. A24’s Primetime dropped 57% to $8.0 million and $34.1 million total, still a hair ahead of Digger on the same $8 million. Forgotten Island added $7.2 million for $23.6 million. The Endgame encore fell 83% to $4.4 million and $36.2 million for this run. Practical Magic 2, another Warner title, made $2.6 million to reach $64.7 million domestic. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is at $954.4 million. The Odyssey added $1.3 million to $620.4 million. Lionsgate’s Beware Boiúna opened to $550,000 in 1,121 theaters.

Abdy Left 39 Movies and This Hole

Ellison called De Luca and Abdy separately on October 2. A person with knowledge of the exchange said Abdy answered the debt lecture with a line that now sits on the Digger gross.

Good luck to you. I left you 39 movies.

Pamela Abdy, outgoing Warner Bros. film chief, on a call with David Ellison

Those titles include Dune: Part Three, The Batman Part II, Gremlins 3, A Minecraft Movie Squared, and The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Under De Luca and Abdy, Warner Bros. took Best Picture for One Battle After Another and posted a strong 2025. None of the studio’s 2026 films has crossed $100 million domestic. Digger was the last swing of that era: an original R-rated satire, shot in VistaVision, built around a star who had not headlined a non-sequel since American Made in 2017.

David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a box-office newsletter, wrote that Digger collapsed and that Ellison, Greenstein, and Goldberg will now decide what kind of movies they want from Warner Bros. He added that Paramount does not have a recent history of making big, auteur-driven films like this.

Hathaway and Cruise Already Share a 2028 Date

The weekend’s winner and its buried lead are already booked together. Paramount has dated a Days of Thunder sequel for June 2, 2028, with Jonathan Levine directing a script by Will Staples and Cruise producing with Jerry Bruckheimer and Tommy Harper. Cruise returns as Cole Trickle. Hathaway plays a team owner and engineer. She has said she will vanish after Verity’s October 2 opening and join him on the track in March 2027.

That film is a sequel, shot for IMAX, with NASCAR’s support. It is the opposite of Digger: a known title, a known car, a known star doing the thing audiences still buy. Hathaway’s 2026 run shows the other half of the market, the one Amazon just cashed. Verity did not need a $160 million satire to get women 25 to 34 into 3,510 theaters. It needed Hoover’s book, two movie stars, and a $40 million negative.

Goldberg and Greenstein now have Abdy’s 39 movies, a debt load near $80 billion, and a Tom Cruise original that opened to $8 million. The next greenlight is theirs.