- Verity (review)- $32.6M
The Colleen Hoover brand has been tarnished somewhat, but it bounced back significantly with Verity, opening with $32M domestically and $62M worldwide. This was never going to be a movie where reviews mattered. This has been described as Hoover’s most popular book and the one where she ventures furthest into erotic thriller territory. As such, audiences didn’t care about the 34% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, although it’s fair to say the 71% Popcornmeter isn’t great, either. It’s the latest success in an up-and-down year for Anne Hathaway, following Mother Mary, The Odyssey, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and The End of Oak Street. As for Dakota Johnson, it’s another strong showing for her following the $105M success of Materialists last year.
2. Resident Evil– $12.5M/$124.8M
3. Heart of the Beast– $11M/$38.3M
4. Primetime– $8M/$34M
5. Digger (review)- $8M
Like many critics, I’ve called Alejandro Inarritu’s apocalyptic satire Digger a “big swing”, but nobody really knew how big until this week. Now that it’s out there in over 3,300 theaters and earning just $8M, we can see that it was a big swing and a miss. Despite reviews of Tom Cruise’s performance being through the roof, it wasn’t enough to attract audiences to see it. That said, the failure of Digger isn’t on him. This was a movie kept largely under wraps for months, and Inarritu’s stuff is always seen as auteur-driven for the arthouse crowd. That’s why I’m shocked at the wide rollout when a platform release timed for awards season would’ve made more sense. The film, about a powerful oil magnate trying to stop a cataclysmic disaster of his own making, was hated by critics (51%) while audiences were sorta meh (71%), suggesting this one will fade away quickly. For Cruise, it’s his lowest opening since the Robert Redford political drama Lions for Lambs way back in 2007.
6. Forgotten Island– $7.2M/$23.6M
7. Avengers: Endgame Encore– $4.4M/$36.2M
Marvel and Disney have reclaimed the all-time global box office, as re-issue Avengers: Endgame: Encore which has hit $2.925B worldwide, surpassing Avatar‘s $2.923. With the $954M from Spider-Man: Brand New Day this past summer, Marvel/Disney can boast that they have the all-time global and all-time domestic records.
8. Drishyam – The Conclusion– $2.7M
9. Practical Magic 2– $2.6M/$64.6M
10. Spider-Man: Brand New Day– $2.4M/$954.4M
Also…Lionsgate released into just 1,121 theaters the giant snake movie that critics have been raving about, Beware Boiúna (review), not that it seems to have meant much. Starring Jessica Rothe, Kiana Madeira, and Logan Marshall-Green, the film hit just $550K for a weak $490 average. Ouch. [BoxOfficeMojo]
