‘Verity’ rules worldwide box office as ‘Digger’ capsizes with $20m debut

Worldwide box office: Oct 2-4

Credit: Rentrak. All figures are estimates

‘Verity’ tops global ranking with $63m opening

In a weekend at the global box office where the power of the world’s biggest legacy movie star got severely tested (see below), it was Amazon MGM Studios’ Verity that launched at the top spot. This latest adaptation of a Colleen Hoover bestseller opened with an estimated $62.6m – combining $32.6m in North America with $30.0m across 70 international markets.

Verity claimed the top spot in 30 international markets, including its four best-performing ones: UK/Ireland (debuting with an estimated $4.5m), Germany ($3.8m), Brazil ($3.5m) and Australia ($3.1m). France ($1.7m) and Mexico ($1.5m) both saw the film land in second place in their respective markets.

The film has a number of notable Asian markets yet to open, including CIS this coming weekend, Vietnam a week later, South Korea on October 22 and Japan on November 6.

Verity represents a box office recovery for Hoover adaptations after Reminders Of Him debuted with a middling $28.2m globally in March this year (from a slightly smaller initial footprint, not including France or Brazil) – on its way to an $89.3m total. Regretting You reached a very similar $90.5m worldwide lifetime total in 2025. The top Hoover adaptation, by far, remains It Ends With Us, with $351.4m worldwide in 2024.

Verity stars Dakota Johnson as a struggling writer hired to complete a bestselling novel series whose author – the titular Verity (Anne Hathaway) – has been left catatonic after a near-fatal car accident. Josh Hartnett also stars, and Michael Showalter directs.

Verity is one of five films starring Hathaway released this year, and the actress has enjoyed highly variable box office fortunes, from Universal megahit The Odyssey ($1.77bn) to A24 misfire Mother Mary ($3.1m worldwide according to available data). Disney’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 grossed a handy $693.2m, and Warner Bros’ The End Of Oak Street reached $121.5m.

Tom Cruise starrer ‘Digger’ set for big losses

Back in April, filmmaker Alejandro G Iñárritu and superstar actor/producer Tom Cruise lit up the Las Vegas CinemaCon trade convention when they walked onto the stage during the Warner Bros slate presentation to introduce footage from their film Digger. Even as recently as Digger’s world premiere in London on September 22, anticipation remained high for this darkly comic environmental satire.

Less than two weeks after the premiere, the shine is now definitively off the film. Digger has opened with a crushingly disappointing estimated $20m – landing in sixth place in the worldwide weekend ranking. International ($12.0m from 73 markets) is ahead of North America ($8.0m).

This is the first original story starring Cruise since American Made in 2017. Doug Liman’s crime comedy reached a lifetime total of $134.9m – considered fairly lacklustre at the time. Other Cruise box office disappointments include 2012’s Rock Of Ages ($59.4m worldwide), in which the actor had a supporting role.

Production budget for Digger is reported at $150m, with marketing costs estimated at $100m. Based on those numbers, the film is said to be headed for a $125m-$150m loss.

New titles from China and India land inside top five

Digger is beaten at the weekend box office not just by Verity, but by holdover titles Heart Of The Beast and Resident Evil, and also by new films from China and India: respectively Traces Of Justice and Drishyam – The Conclusion.

Traces Of Justice, which is also known as Sherlock Of China, opened on October 1 to launch the National Day Golden Week holiday – delivering $31.2m for the October 2-4 weekend frame and $41.8m across the four days according to local data gatherer Artisan Gateway. (Our worldwide top 10 chart, provided by Rentrak, shows different numbers.)

New Classic Pictures’ procedural crime drama is directed by Chen Sicheng (Detective Chinatown), and stars Zhang Yi as a legendary detective leading a team cracking complex cases.

Also launched for the National Day Golden Week holiday is Mr & Mrs Pardon, which opened to a four-day $24.5m according to Artisan Gateway (and Rentrak again has different numbers). The comedy stars real-life couple Shen Chunyang (who also directs ­– making her debut) and Xiao Shenyang as a couple whose unravelling marriage is shaken up by a body-swap event. Jia Bing and Yu Yang also star.

From India, crime thriller Drishyam – The Conclusion has opened with an estimated $28.2m worldwide including $2.7m in North America. There are two Drishyam film series in India – one in Malayalam and one in Hindi – and this new film is the third of the Hindi series. In 2022, the Hindi Drishyam 2 grossed $36m worldwide by the end of its run, according to available data.

‘Avengers Endgame: Encore’ becomes biggest hit of all time

The new extended version of Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame may have seen box office numbers plummet in its second session – down to $18.8m from its $86.0m opening – but Disney still has plenty to celebrate.

That extra box office puts Avengers: Endgame at number one in the all-time global ranking, with $2.925bn, ahead of the various releases of Avatar on $2.924bn.

Avengers Endgame: Encore has grossed $126.0m globally so far – 4.3% of the Avengers: Endgame total.

‘Forgotten Island’ chugs to $38.5m total

Among holdover titles, Paramount’s Heart Of The Beast is homing in on $100m worldwide (see chart above), while Sony’s Resident Evil will soon hit $250m. So far a box office also-ran is DreamWorks animation Forgotten Island, which added an estimated $12.0m at the weekend (good enough for ninth place in the global ranking), and now stands at $38.5m.

This original story, set in the Philippines in the 1990s, is receiving a staggered global rollout, so it’s a little early to be reaching a firm verdict, but the numbers do not look wildly encouraging, with 47 territories including North America so far released. Key markets yet to welcome the film include Germany (October 8), UK/Ireland (October 16) and France (October 21).

Falling out of the top 10 chart this week are A24’s Primetime (so far barely released outside North America), South Korean hit The Assassin(s), Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day (which has just passed the $2.5bn milestone globally) and China’s Once Upon A Time In The Middle East.

• Final pre-merger WB release ‘Digger’ scores 19-year US box-office low for Tom Cruise