We all knew this wasn’t going to be the best box office weekend of Tom Cruise’s career. Digger, despite its Oscar aspirations and the talent involved both in front of behind and the camera, hasn’t been tracking well for weeks, and the extremely divisive critics reviews weren’t going to help. It was always going to be a struggle, to the point where recent estimates have predicted Digger would barely break $10M its first weekend. Unfortunately, the numbers are now out, and even that revised $10M prediction was too much.
The exact number will get finalized once the weekend is officially over, but taking into account actual grosses from Friday and Saturday, the new prediction has Digger making $8M. From a creative standpoint, that’s disappointing, considering how big of a swing the film takes. From a financial standpoint, it’s catastrophic, considering its budget has been reported as being anywhere between $120M and $160M.
For Verity, however, the story was the exact opposite. The latest adaptation of a Colleen Hoover book, which has gotten mixed reviews, put up a huge number this weekend and is the latest bit of evidence that the author is becoming a great person to bet on financially. Behind the scenes issues aside, It Ends With Us made more than $300M at the global box office, but even the lesser entries in her catalog like Regretting You and Reminders Of Him made close to $100M at the box office. Verity seems destined to be the second biggest hit of her career, thanks in part to this opening north of $30M.
You can check out the full top ten below with estimates from The Numbers…
Title |
Weekend Gross |
Domestic Gross |
Last Week |
Theaters |
1. Verity |
$32,618,776 |
$32,618,776 |
NA |
3,510 |
2. Resident Evil |
$12,500,000 |
$124,895,000 |
2 |
3,259 |
3. Heart Of The Beast |
$11,000,000 |
$38,399,000 |
3 |
3,481 |
4. Primetime |
$8,000,085 |
$34,085,832 |
4 |
2,894 |
5. Digger |
$8,000,000 |
$8,000,000 |
NA |
3,321 |
6. Forgotten Island |
$7,200,000 |
$23,631,000 |
5 |
3,555 |
7. Avengers: Endgame |
$4,400,000 |
$894,599,985 |
1 |
3,000 |
8. Practical Magic 2 |
$2,655,000 |
$64,696,000 |
6 |
2,063 |
9. Spider-Man: Brand New Day |
$2,450,000 |
$954,477,000 |
7 |
1,724 |
10. The Odyssey |
$1,300,000 |
$620,464,000 |
8 |
662 |
As you can tell, there were more notable movies to talk about than just Digger and Verity and Resident Evil which seems to be on cruise control with another solid weekend. Let's start with Heart Of The Beast. I'm sure the survival thriller expected bigger numbers from its first two weekends thanks to Brad Pitt and a budget that allegedly pushed $80M. With good reviews and a great dog performance, you would have expected it to make a bigger impact than this, but it's hanging in there thanks in part to good word of mouth. This could end up being a movie that lingers for awhile and has high viewership numbers on streaming.
It slightly beat out Primetime, but you'd have to imagine those involved with the A24 movie are pretty pleased with what they're seeing. The artsy and divisive movie, which is pretty aggressive toward Chris Hansen, has been a major topic of conversation in the film community. Those in the target audience are clearly getting out to see it too, as the film is doing quite well for one reportedly made on $15M.
The other notable here is the re-release of Avengers: Endgame, which fell exponentially from its huge re-opening weekend. That was to be expected, however. Marvel pushed hard that fans should make an effort to see it thanks to added material that was relevant for the MCU. The plan worked, but clearly, the type of fan who cares enough to see a re-release for a few minutes of new footage is the type of fan to see it ASAP. The second week drop off was always going to be big here.
We'll be back next weekend for another box office round-up. I'll be interested to see how Social Reckoning performs, as well as how Digger holds up and whether Forgotten Island can continue to linger and slowly find its audience.
