Two preview numbers, two box office paths
Thursday previews sorted the weekend into two camps. Amazon MGM’s Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity started at $4.5M and is pointed toward a $30M+ domestic debut. Warner Bros.’ Tom Cruise satire Digger, directed by Alejandro Iñárritu, stalled at $1.2M and now looks likely to open below $10M.
Hoover’s fanbase is the real distribution asset
Verity, starring Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett, began its R-rated run at 2PM Thursday, including early access shows. Its $4.5M preview result sits below the $7M previews of It Ends with Us, which opened to $50M, but well above Reminders of Him, which earned $1.9M in previews earlier this year and opened to $17.9M.
That comp set matters more than the critics’ reception. It Ends with Us and Reminders of Him hold 55% and 56% Tomatometer scores respectively, while their audience scores run at 87% each. Regretting You had a 29% critic score but an 83% audience score. The marketing takeaway is not subtle: for Hoover titles, media buyers should weight author brand and fan communities above review quotes.
Digger’s soft start is a catalog story, not a theatrical one
Digger‘s $1.2M previews landed below One Battle After Another ($3.1M previews, $22M opening) and only ahead of Megalopolis ($770K previews, $4M opening). For a film reported to cost $125M-$160M+, a domestic start under $10M would be a clear theatrical miss.
The news around the studio makes the result harder to ignore. Reports circulated Thursday that Warner Bros Motion Picture chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy will not move to the combined Paramount Warner Bros company. Cruise’s catalog still supports the broader asset case: his films have grossed $14 billion across 53 titles, and even a misfire can bring attention back to that library.
The top five around them
Holdovers and re-issues filled the rest of the chart.
- Resident Evil (Sony): $32.1M week, $112.3M total in week 2
- Avengers Endgame: Encore (Disney): $31.8M re-issue, lifetime cume $890.1M
- Heart of the Beast (Paramount): $27.3M in week 1
- Primetime (A24): $25.1M in week 1
- Forgotten Island (Universal/DWA): $16.4M in week 1
What to do with the signal
For media planners and distribution teams, the split is instructive. Fan-driven literary IP can be sold like a fandom event: early access screenings, audience score creative, and author-led talent beats. Star-led original satire needs proof of concept, because a famous lead alone did not convert preview audiences.
Source: Deadline
