Anne Hathaway has a hit! And Tom Cruise doesn’t!
That’s the take-away from this first weekend in October, when a “chick lit” thriller starring an Oscar winner out-earns one of the biggest box office stars of all time in what must have been seen — at some point — as an Oscar bait Awards Season contender.
The “worst Tom Cruise film opening in 19 years” is how Deadline.com put it. “Digger” might open, Warner Bros. hopes/insists, over $10 million. It might be lucky to hit $8, judging from Thursday night and Friday’s take ($4 million).
Reviews, per Metacritic.com, have been mediocre for this unamusing, over-the-top and “Birdman” ish environmental disaster parable/satire.
“Verity,” the latest thriller inspired by a Colleen Hoover (“It Ends with Us”) novel, features Hathaway and Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett with “Big Sick” director Michael Showalter behind the camera. A robust Thursday night ($4.5 million) led to a decent-enough Friday ($14.5 million “opening day”) and that points to a $32 million+ opening weekend for this potboiler.
Hoover’s adaptations are not critical favorites (not quite a romance novelist, not remotely literary fiction either), as Metacritic reviews for this one are just as tepid — mixed to negative — as they are for “Digger.”
The “Resident Evil” reboot is still making bank, and another $11.5 million will park it in second place.
Brad Pitt and his canine adventure tale “Heart of the Beast” is slated to clear $10 million and almost certainly edge or clobber “Digger” for third place.
“Primetime” is on track to manage another $7.4 and spend one last weekend in the top five.
And the two new titles will push SOMEbody and somebody else out of the top ten — probably “Runner” and “Daniel and the Fiery Furnace.” Check back later this weekend to see who that turns out to be as I will be updating this post (with difficulty, as WordPress is having “issues.” Again).