Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | October 5, 2026
Tom Cruise is The Last Movie Star, so we’re told, and his jump to “serious” acting after a couple of decades of skydiving from burning helicopters was hyped to the nines for close to two years straight. Would Digger, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, bring him that long-desired Oscar win, and prove that he can make any movie a commercial smash by his name alone? So the short answer is no. But first, Colleen Hoover.
One of the 2020s’s biggest-selling authors—and one of its most-maligned—has had a solid run of box office hits over the past couple of years. What it lacks in reviews, it makes up in grosses. Enter Verity, which stars Dakota Johnson and, in her fifth film of 2026, Anne Hathaway. Again, write-ups were poor, but this book is a mega-hit and audiences yearn for trashy camp. So, it opened to an impressive $32.6 million. A $62.6 million worldwide opening weekend means it’s already earned back its $40 million budget. So, Colleen Hoover adaptations will continue. My morale will never improve.
Back to Digger. Alas, despite all that hype, it could only debut at number five with $8 million from 2,408 cinemas. Reviews were mixed-to-bad (I thought it was deeply irritating and Pajiba’s own Jason called it “intellectual belligerence disguised as wink-wink buffoonery.”)
This was always going to be a hard sell as a satire about climate change that’s also a satire about satire. With a reported budget of $140 to 180 million, it also needed to be big right out of the gate. As much as I disliked the film, I’m all in favour of studios giving blank cheques to mad directors to make whatever the hell they want. I want more films like Eddington and The Bride!, dang it! David Ellison ain’t gonna greenlight this stuff.
At number eight is Drishyam: The Conclusion, a Hindi crime thriller and the third part of a trilogy. It’s currently the 5th highest-grossing Hindi film of 2026. In America, it grossed $2.715 million from 541 locations.
At 14 is Beware Boiúna, a movie about a giant man-eating snake starring that guy who looks like Tom Hardy. It earned $550,000 from 1,121 theatres. Behind that is Rolling Loud, a comedy about Owen Wilson sneaking his son into a hip-hop festival. Matt Rife is in this one. So is Ty Dolla Sign, Sexyy Red, and Henry Winkler. Sure, why not? It only earned $446,912.
Can you believe it’s been 10 years since the release of Moonlight? To celebrate its anniversary, the Oscar winner returned to theatres (400 of them, anyway) and made an impressive $301,155.
In limited release news: Naza, a documentary revealing the IDF’s targeted killings of Palestinian civilians, earned $59,150 from only one theatres; Appofeniacs, a horror film about AI deepfakes, grossed $18,028; and Atonement, an Iraq War drama that has nothing to do with the Keira Knightley film, took in $18,028 from two locations.
This coming week sees the release of the horror film Other Mommy, Aaron Sorkin’s return to Facebook in The Social Reckoning, and the wide release of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.
