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NEW YORK (AP) -- 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 $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. Inarritu'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.
The disappointing opening comes just as Paramount Skydance is closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. After U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-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.