On the verge of merging the studio with Of utmost importanceWarner Bros.’ “excavator” failed on its opening weekend, gave Tom Cruise one of the worst debuts of his career and was a bitter final word for Warner Bros. as an independent studio.
No. 1 in North American cinemas went on instead Amazon MGM’s “Truth,”Extension of the series of Colleen Hoover adaptations at the box office. It debuted with $32.6 million. In the Michael Showalter-directed film, Dakota Johnson plays an author hired to ghostwrite a series of books by an incapacitated author (Anne Hathaway).
But all eyes were on the performance of “Digger,” one of the biggest games of the year. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s critically panned satire grossed a paltry $8 million domestically. Cruises are typically a big draw abroad, but international sales were also weak, at $12 million in 74 markets.
After reviews were so bad that Warner Bros. decided to run “make up your own mind” ads, estimates for “Digger” were revised downward last week.
It’s an extremely difficult start for a film that cost at least $125 million to produce. The production budget is reportedly closer to $150 million. Marketing spending is estimated at another $100 million.
“Digger” was positioned as a potential awards season heavyweight and had almost the exact same date as Warner Bros.’ Film. “One battle at a time” was last year. “Digger” is a similarly politically charged release that gave a big budget to a top filmmaker working from an original story.
But this major pivot from Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy won’t pay off like “One Battle After Another.” It grossed $213.2 million worldwide and, more importantly, won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
“Digger” fails at a moment of Hollywood transformation
The disappointing opening comes just as Paramount completes its acquisition of Skydance Warner Bros. Discovery. According to U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín on Wednesday agreed to the $110 billion dealParamount said it would complete the merger on Tuesday.
In a banner year for Hollywood, Warner Bros. has failed to bring a single film to $100 million domestically, although December release “Dune: Part III” will easily top that mark. De Luca and Abdy are expected to leave Warner Bros. this week. Mass layoffs are to be expected.
“‘Digger’ collapsed this weekend and the new management of the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. group, David Ellison, Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will soon decide what kind of films they want from WB,” wrote David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a box office newsletter. “Paramount hasn’t made big, auteur-driven films like this in recent memory – that strategy appears to be outdated.”
Critics (51% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) criticized “Digger” as an over-the-top climate change farce, although Cruise’s over-the-top performance was received more positively. Audiences agreed, giving it a “C+” CinemaScore rating.
Cruise spent the better part of the last decade starring in the films “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” both franchises that allowed him to remain a top action hero well 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 gave his first lengthy magazine interview in years.
“Avengers: Endgame” takes back the all-time title
The top film of the last weekend, “Avengers Endgame: Encore” slipped to seventh place with $4.4 million domestically and $14.4 million overseas. But the second week of the Marvel re-release allowed “Endgame” to narrowly pass “Avatar” and reclaim the title of highest-grossing film of all time, without taking inflation into account. The two films have swapped places with new releases in recent years. “Endgame” now sits at $2.9255 billion, while “Avatar” has $2.9237 billion.
The rest of the weekend’s top sellers at the cinema 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 Paramounts “Heart of the Beast” Starring Brad Pitt as a retired veteran who wanders the Alaskan wilderness with his attack dog after a plane crash.
In its third week, “Resident Evil” took second place with $12.5 million. “Heart of the Beast” followed with $11 million. And “Primetime” collected $8 million in its second weekend.
Top 10 Films by Domestic Box Office
Since final domestic numbers will be released on Monday, this list takes into account 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.