Anne Hathaway's Verity Opens With 33 Million Dollars as Colleen Hoover Brand Rebounds While Tom Cruise's Digger Craters

Amazon MGM's psychological thriller "Verity" seized the top spot at the domestic box office this weekend with an estimated 33 million dollars from 3,510 theaters, marking the second-best opening for a Colleen Hoover adaptation and handing Anne Hathaway her third number-one film of 2026. The erotic thriller pairing Hathaway with Dakota Johnson delivered a $9,293 per-screen average that signals the Hoover brand still has significant box office pull despite earlier stumbles.

The film's opening positions it as a comeback for the Colleen Hoover literary-to-screen pipeline, which had shown signs of audience fatigue after multiple adaptations failed to match the breakout success of earlier films. "Verity" appears to have cracked the formula by leaning into the darker, more adult-skewing elements of Hoover's thriller rather than trying to replicate the teen-romance template that worked for "It Ends with Us" but felt tired by the third or fourth entry.

Globally, "Verity" pulled in over 62 million dollars, with strong international markets suggesting the Hathaway-Johnson pairing resonates beyond the domestic Hoover fanbase. Taiwan and the CIS region open next weekend, with South Korea following on October 22 and Japan on November 6 — markets where both leads have proven drawing power and where the thriller genre tends to overperform.

Tom Cruise's Digger Suffers Stunning Collapse

While "Verity" celebrated, Warner Bros. faced one of the most catastrophic openings of the year as Tom Cruise's political satire "Digger" limped to just 8 million dollars domestically and 20 million worldwide from 3,321 screens. For a star of Cruise's magnitude and a director of Alejandro G. Iñárritu's prestige, those numbers represent nothing short of a box office disaster that will go down as a significant financial loss for the studio.

Critics had been calling "Digger" a "big swing" for months, praising Iñárritu's ambition and the film's willingness to tackle uncomfortable political themes through satire. General audiences, however, rejected it outright. The film's 2,409 dollar per-screen average suggests not just indifference but active avoidance — the kind of numbers that indicate audiences saw the marketing, read the reviews, and consciously chose to spend their money elsewhere.

The failure is particularly stunning given Cruise's near-bulletproof track record at the box office. While the actor has made lower-grossing films over his four-decade career, an opening this soft for a wide release is exceedingly rare and calls into question whether audiences still show up for Cruise in films that aren't action spectacles. The political satire genre has proven nearly impossible to sell in recent years, and "Digger" may be the final nail in its coffin.

What Verity's Success Reveals About Audiences

The stark contrast between "Verity's" strong debut and "Digger's" collapse offers a clear snapshot of what's working in theaters right now. Audiences want escapist entertainment with clear genre hooks — a sexy thriller based on a bestseller delivers that. They're actively avoiding preachy satire that requires them to sit through two hours of political commentary disguised as entertainment, no matter how acclaimed the filmmaker or how famous the star.

"Verity" also benefits from a built-in audience of Colleen Hoover readers who were eager to see how the book's controversial twist translated to screen. That's a fanbase that shows up opening weekend, drives social media conversation, and pulls in casual viewers through word of mouth. "Digger," by contrast, had no comparable base — political satire fans are a niche within a niche, and they're increasingly content to wait for streaming rather than pay theater prices.

For Anne Hathaway, this marks a remarkable year of box office dominance. With three number-one films in 2026, she's re-established herself as a draw who can open movies across multiple genres — a rare feat in an era where stars matter far less than IP. The "Verity" role also allows her to play against type, leaning into the darker, morally ambiguous territory that seems to be where prestige actresses are finding their most interesting work.

Where Both Films Go From Here

"Verity" should have solid legs through the next few weeks, as positive word of mouth from Hoover's fanbase drives repeat viewings and converts curious audiences who might have been on the fence. A final domestic total in the 85-100 million range seems achievable, with international markets potentially pushing the worldwide take past 150 million. That would make it a clear hit for Amazon MGM and likely green-light more Hoover adaptations.

"Digger," meanwhile, faces the grim reality of being a write-off. Warmer Bros. will push it to premium video-on-demand within weeks, hoping to recoup some losses from viewers who might give it a chance at home but would never pay for a theater ticket. Iñárritu will move on to his next project with his reputation intact — auteurs are expected to take risks, and not all of them pay off. But for Cruise, this may be a wake-up call that his brand only works in certain genres, and straying too far outside that lane comes with real financial consequences.

The weekend's box office results confirm what insiders have suspected for months: audiences are willing to show up for smart, well-executed genre films with star power, but they have zero patience for anything that feels like homework. "Verity" understood that. "Digger" didn't. And in a marketplace where every dollar counts, that difference determines who gets to make more movies and who gets quietly shelved.