Anne Hathaway and Tom Cruise start shooting Days of Thunder 2 together in March. First, she’s going to bury him at the box office.
Amazon MGM’s Verity is on track to win the weekend with $25 million to $32 million. Michael Showalter directs Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett in the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation.
Critics have been harsh, with Verity sitting at 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that’s never stopped a Hoover movie before. It Ends With Us was panned in 2024 and still became a massive blockbuster with $351 million worldwide. Regretting You (2025) and Reminders of Him (2026) were more modest hits, finishing at $90.5 million and $56 million, respectively, but both finished in the black with budgets around $25 million. Verity cost a reported $40 million to produce.
It’s been a big year for Hathaway, who’s closing out 2026 with a fifth release and a baby on the way. Her first four movies this year — The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, Mother Mary, and The End of Oak Street — have grossed more than $2.5 billion worldwide, and she currently leads Gold Derby’s Oscar odds for Best Supporting Actress for The Odyssey.
Two holdovers are in a close race behind Verity. Resident Evil takes second in its third weekend with $12 million to $16 million. Zach Cregger’s reboot has passed $103 million domestically and is already the biggest hit the franchise has ever had.
Heart of the Beast is right behind with $11 million to $14 million. Brad Pitt’s survival drama opened to $20 million and picked up an A-minus CinemaScore, which usually signals a soft second-weekend drop.
Which brings us to Digger. Warner Bros.’ Tom Cruise vehicle is projected for $8 million to $12 million, a devastating collapse from the $30 million tracking services had it at months ago. A start that low would be his weakest wide opening since 2012’s Rock of Ages ($14.4 million), and not far off the $6.7 million debut of 2007’s Lions for Lambs, the worst of his career.
Four-time Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu directs Cruise as an oil tycoon whose company triggers an environmental disaster, with Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, and Sandra Hüller co-starring. It’s the director’s first theatrical release since 2022’s Bardo.
Reviews came in at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Warner Bros. is leaning into the split. The studio’s latest ads quote the harshest pans and tell moviegoers to decide for themselves. Digger was also supposed to be an awards play — Cruise’s first original movie since 2017’s American Made. It’s been sliding in Gold Derby’s Oscar predictions since the first reactions landed, now sitting outside the top 10 for Best Picture, with Cruise in fourth for Best Actor.
Primetime rounds out the top five with about $9 million in its second weekend. A24’s Robert Pattinson film opened to $19.1 million last weekend, the studio’s third-biggest debut ever.
Here are Gold Derby’s predicted box-office rankings for the top five over the Oct. 2-4 weekend:
Verity — $30 million
Resident Evil — $14 million
Heart of the Beast — $12 million
Digger — $10 million
Primetime — $9 million
Check back Sunday for actuals and how they stacked up against our predictions.
New releases
Digger
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Distributor: Warner Bros.
The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything. The comedy has a running time of two hours, nine minutes, and is rated R. Digger is certified “rotten” with a 52% score per the aggregated critic reviews at Rotten Tomatoes; “mixed” reviews compiled by Metacritic resulted in an overall score of 46.
Verity
Director: Michael Showalter
Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios
Lowen Ashleigh, hired to ghostwrite for Verity Crawford, uncovers what appears to be Verity’s autobiographical notes. She wrestles with the confessions about Verity’s husband and finds separating fiction from reality challenging. The thriller has a running time of one hour, 54 minutes, and is rated R. Verity is certified “rotten” with a 43% score per the aggregated critic reviews at Rotten Tomatoes; “mixed” reviews compiled by Metacritic resulted in an overall score of 44.
2026 box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million