Amazon MGM’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Verity opened to $62.5 million worldwide, while Alejandro Inarritu’s Tom Cruise political satire Digger started with just $20 million globally.
Verity’s opening becomes a Hoover benchmark
The $40 million production, directed by Michael Showalter and starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, landed the second-largest global start for a Hoover adaptation. It trailed 2024’s It Ends With Us, which opened to $95.6 million worldwide, but ran ahead of recent Hoover-derived titles Regretting You ($23.6 million from 43 markets) and Reminders of Him ($28.1 million from 57 markets).
Domestically, Verity opened to $32.6 million with a 78 percent female audience. Amazon’s international offices reported that the offshore draw was wider, pulling in male moviegoers and non-readers in markets such as Norway and Ukraine. The result extends Amazon MGM’s run in female-driven content, alongside Prime Video series such as Off Campus and Elle.
Key offshore starts from Deadline’s market table include:
- UK: $4.5 million from 950 screens, No. 1
- Brazil: $3.8 million from 715 screens, No. 1
- Germany: $3.8 million from 715 screens, No. 1
- Australia: $3.1 million from 500 screens, No. 1
- India: $500,000 from 350 screens, 12 percent behind It Ends With Us
Verity also cleared Warner Bros’ reported $46 million global start for Practical Magic 2 in 77 offshore markets.
Digger’s numbers are the weekend’s warning
Inarritu’s Digger cost a reported $160 million net and opened to $20 million globally, with $12 million offshore and $8 million domestically. That is far from the $48.5 million worldwide start that One Battle After Another posted across 74 territories a year ago. That film later became Paul Thomas Anderson’s highest grosser at $213.2 million worldwide.
The comparison is not just about genre. Digger shows the risk of very high budgets on original political satire, even with Cruise attached. A $20 million opening leaves a long path to profitability.
What the screen trade should take from the split
For marketers and media planners, Verity is the more useful case. It demonstrates that known book IP with a female-first plan can generate global theatrical demand without a superhero budget. Pre-sales in markets such as Brazil were already ahead of It Ends With Us, and several European and Latin American markets posted No. 1 starts.
The holdover story is Paramount’s The Heart of the Beast, which added $32.5 million globally in its second frame and now sits at $98.7 million worldwide, with Korea still to open on October 29. Verity’s rollout continues next weekend in Taiwan and the CIS, with Korea following on October 22 and Japan on November 6.
Source: Deadline
