NEW YORK — 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. 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 US$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). But all eyes were on how “Digger,” one of the year’s biggest gambles, would perform. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s critically panned satire grossed a paltry $8 million domestically. Cruise is typically a big draw overseas, but international sales, $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 $125 million to make. Reports have pegged the production budget closer to $150 million. The marketing spend is estimated at another $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. “Digger” 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 $213.2 million worldwide and, more importantly, won best picture at the Academy Awards. ‘Digger’ flops at a moment of Hollywood transformation The disappointing opening comes just as Paramount Skydance is closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. After U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín on Wednesday approved the $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 $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. “‘Digger’ collapsed this weekend and the new management of the combined Paramount and Warner Bros., David Ellison and Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will soon decide what kind of movies they want from WB,” wrote David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office figures. “Paramount does not have a recent history of making big, auteur-driven films like this — that strategy appears to be over and out.” Critics (51 per cent 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 $409.2 million worldwide on a $195 million budget. To help sell “Digger,” Cruise pulled out all the stops. He even granted his first lengthy magazine interview in years. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ retakes all-time crown Last weekend’s top film, “Avengers Endgame: Encore,” slid to seventh place with $4.4 million domestically and $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 ever, not accounting for inflation. The two films have traded spots in recent years with re-releases. “Endgame” now tallies $2.9255 billion, while “Avatar” has $2.9237 billion. 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 $12.5 million. “Heart of the Beast” followed with $11 million. And “Primetime” collected $8 million in its second weekend. Top 10 movies by domestic 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. Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
