The Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity topped the North American box office on its opening weekend with $32.0 million. Tom Cruise’s Digger, the other major new release, opened in fourth place.

The psychological thriller Verity won the North American box office over the weekend of October 2–4, opening with $32,031,011 from 3,510 theaters, according to the box office tracker The Numbers. That works out to an average of $9,126 per theater.

The film, released by Amazon MGM Studios and based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, stars Anne Hathaway as the author Verity Crawford and Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh, the struggling writer hired to finish her books. Josh Hartnett plays Verity’s husband, Jeremy. Michael Showalter directed.

A Strong Start Against Its Budget

The Numbers lists the film’s production budget at $40 million. By Wednesday, October 7, its sixth day in release, Verity had taken $40,404,150 in North America and $70,227,473 worldwide.

‘Digger’ Opens Fourth

The weekend’s other big opener had a far harder time. Digger, a black comedy directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Tom Cruise, took $8,001,856 from 3,321 theaters, an average of $2,409, and finished fourth.

It edged out Primetime by less than $2,000. Primetime made $8,000,085 in its second weekend, a drop of 58 percent.

The Rest of the Chart

The horror reboot Resident Evil held second place with $12,618,839, down 45 percent, lifting its North American total to $125,013,734 after three weekends.

Heart of the Beast was third with $10,876,713, and Forgotten Island was sixth with $7,201,655.

Last week’s winner, the re-release Avengers Endgame: Encore, fell 83 percent to $4,471,524 and seventh place.

Top Five, October 2–4

  • Verity — $32,031,011
  • Resident Evil — $12,618,839
  • Heart of the Beast — $10,876,713
  • Digger — $8,001,856
  • Primetime — $8,000,085

Together, the ten highest-grossing films took about $91.2 million, based on The Numbers’ figures for each title.

Image: Anne Hathaway at the Berlin International Film Festival, 2023. Photo by Harald Krichel via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.