Tom Cruise’s Digger opened in theaters on Friday, October 2, but its box office performance fell well below expectations. On the other hand, Paramount and Warner Bros. cleared a major legal hurdle toward their historic merger, and Michael B. Jordan adds three major studio projects to his growing slate.
Digger Falls Far Below Box Office Expectations
Tom Cruise’s Digger made $1.2 million from Thursday previews and another $3.4 million on Friday, before ending its opening weekend with just $8 million domestically against a budget of $180 million.
That is a sharp drop from its earlier projections. Boxoffice Pro had predicted a $20 million to $30 million opening in its September 11 forecast. After reviews arrived, Variety reported that Warner Bros. had lowered its own expectation to $12 million to $15 million. Digger ultimately fell below even that range.
The poor opening came after a week of divided reviews. Digger opened with a 51% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and later received a C+ CinemaScore.
Though both were newly released on Friday, Digger struggled against Amazon MGM’s Verity. The Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson thriller opened to $32.6 million which is more than four times Digger’s weekend total. And it did so against a budget of $62.6 million.
Resident Evil remained strong in the third weekend since its release with $12.5 million, taking its domestic total to $124.9 million.
Avengers: Endgame Encore finished its second weekend with $4.4 million domestically. Its re-release has now pushed the 2019 film back above Avatar as the highest-grossing movie of all time, with $2.9255 billion worldwide compared with Avatar’s $2.9237 billion.
Paramount and Warner Bros. Merger Clears Final Hurdle
The long-awaited Paramount-Warner Bros. merger moved closer to completion on September 30 when a federal judge approved a settlement that ended the antitrust lawsuit brought by 12 US states.
The deal was first announced on February 27, when Paramount agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $110 billion. The merger then faced regulatory reviews around the world and a lawsuit from state attorneys general who argued that combining the companies could reduce competition. By this week, regulators in nearly 70 countries had cleared the deal, leaving the now-settled lawsuit as the final major obstacle.
The combined company will bring together Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Paramount+, HBO Max and major franchises including DC, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Mission: Impossible, Top Gun and Game of Thrones. The merger is expected to be finalized on October 6.
David Ellison announced on his X page on Friday that the new company will be called Skydance Corporation. The name is taken from the production company he founded. Ynon Kreiz, who left his position as Mattel chairman and CEO on the same day, will join Ellison as co-CEO.
Warner Bros.’ film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are expected to leave after the merger closes. Paramount’s Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein are expected to oversee the combined film operations.
Michael B. Jordan Adds Three Projects from Major Studios
Michael B. Jordan had a busy week, with new developments involving Universal, Sony and the newly formed Skydance.
Universal’s Miami Vice ’85, which is being headlined by Michael B. Jordan, added comedian Andrew Schulz to its cast last Tuesday. Edi Gathegi joined the cast list the following day after his recent appearance as Mr. Terrific in James Gunn’s Superman. Gathegi is set to play a small-time criminal with big ambitions who finds himself in over his head.
Walton Goggins joined the film on Thursday in a reported villain role. He is expected to play a henchman and assassin working for John Leguizamo’s cartel kingpin, the film’s main villain. Goggins is best known to many viewers for The Ghoul in Fallout.
Miami Vice ‘85 will be directed by Joseph Kosinski. It will star Jordan as undercover detective Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs and Austin Butler as James “Sonny” Crockett. It explores the glamour, corruption, and criminal underworld of mid-1980s Miami and is scheduled for release on May 19, 2028.
Jordan also moved closer to another major project. Sony Pictures is in talks to acquire his Battlefield adaptation after a bidding war involving several studios. Christopher McQuarrie will write, direct, and produce the film, while Jordan is attached as a producer and could also star. Electronic Arts, which owns the military video-game franchise, will also produce.
Battlefield is a long-running video-game series centered on large-scale military combat. Plot details for the film are being kept secret.
On the same day, Paramount Skydance released a video celebrating the merger, combining footage from properties that will now sit under the same corporate roof. The video includes scenes from Superman, The Lord of the Rings, Dune, Harry Potter and Barbie. Jordan provides the voiceover, making his involvement with the new company one of the week’s more visible connections between its expanding film projects.
