NEW YORK (AP) — On the cusp of the studio’s merger with Paramount, Warner Bros.’ “Digger” flopped in its opening weekend, handing Tom Cruise one of the worst debuts of his career and serving as a bitter final note for Warner Bros. as a standalone studio.
No. 1 in North American theaters instead went to Amazon MGM’s “Verity,” extending the streak for Colleen Hoover adaptations at the box office. It debuted with $32.6 million. The film, directed by Michael Showalter, stars Dakota Johnson as a writer hired to ghostwrite a book series by an incapacitated author (Anne Hathaway).
But all eyes were on how “Digger,” one of the year’s biggest gambles, would perform. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s critically panned satire grossed a paltry $8 million domestically. Cruise is typically a big draw overseas, but international sales, $12 million from 74 markets, were also weak.
After reviews so bad that Warner Bros. opted to run “decide for yourself” ads, estimates for “Digger” had been revised down over the past week.
It’s a painfully rough start for a movie that cost at least $125 million to make. Reports have pegged the production budget closer to $150 million. The marketing spend is estimated at another $100 million.
“Digger” had been positioned as a potential awards-season heavyweight, dated almost exactly the same as Warner Bros.’ “One Battle After Another” was last year. “Digger” is a similarly politically charged release that handed a large budget to a top filmmaker working from an original story.
But this big swing by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy won’t pay off as well as “One Battle After Another.” It grossed $213.2 million worldwide and, more importantly, won best picture at the Academy Awards.
The disappointing opening comes just as Paramount Skydance is closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. After U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín on Wednesday approved the $110 billion deal, Paramount said it would close the merger on Tuesday.
In a flush year for Hollywood, Warner Bros. has failed to get one film to $100 million domestically, though its December release, “Dune: Part III,” will easily cross that. De Luca and Abdy are expected to depart Warner Bros. this week. Mass layoffs are anticipated to follow.
“‘Digger’ collapsed this weekend and the new management of the combined Paramount and Warner Bros., David Ellison and Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will soon decide what kind of movies they want from WB,” wrote David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office figures. “Paramount does not have a recent history of making big, auteur-driven films like this — that strategy appears to be over and out.”
Critics (51% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) slammed “Digger” as a strained climate change farce, though Cruise’s over-the-top performance was received more warmly. Audiences agreed, giving it a “C+” CinemaScore.
Cruise has spent most of the last decade starring in “Mission: Impossible” movies and “Top Gun: Maverick,” both franchises that have allowed him to remain a top action hero into his 60s. The 64-year-old’s last major box-office disappointment was 2017’s “The Mummy,” which grossed $409.2 million worldwide on a $195 million budget.
To help sell “Digger,” Cruise pulled out all the stops. He even granted his first lengthy magazine interview in years.
Last weekend’s top film, “Avengers Endgame: Encore,” slid to seventh place with $4.4 million domestically and $14.4 million overseas. But the Marvel re-release’s second week allowed “Endgame” to just nudge ahead of “Avatar” to reclaim the title of highest grossing film ever, not accounting for inflation. The two films have traded spots in recent years with re-releases. “Endgame” now tallies $2.9255 billion, while “Avatar” has $2.9237 billion.
The rest of the top-sellers in cinemas over the weekend were holdovers: Zach Cregger’s video game adaptation “Resident Evil” for Sony Pictures; Lance Oppenheim’s A24 drama “Primetime,” with Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen; and Paramount’s “Heart of the Beast,” starring Brad Pitt as a retired veteran who treks through the Alaskan wilderness with his combat dog after a plane crash.
In its third week, “Resident Evil” came in second with $12.5 million. “Heart of the Beast” followed with $11 million. And “Primetime” collected $8 million in its second weekend.
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:
1. “Verity,” $32.6 million.
2. “Resident Evil,” $12.5 million.
3. “Heart of the Beast,” $11 million.
4. “Primetime,” $8 million.
5. “Digger,” $8 million.
6. “Forgotten Island,” $7.2 million.
7. “Avengers: Endgame: Encore,” $4.4 million.
8. “Drishyam: The Conclusion,” $2.7 million.
9. “Practical Magic 2,” $2.7 million.
10. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” $2.5 million.
Josh Hartnett, from left, Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway, and Ismael Cruz Córdova attend the premiere of Amazon MGM Studios' "Verity" at AMC Lincoln Square on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Tom Cruise poses for photographers upon arrival at the World premiere for the film "Digger" in London, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a new aid package for Ukraine worth more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) during a visit to Kyiv on Sunday, as Russia escalated its attacks on Ukrainian cities.
The aerial war has intensified, with Moscow menacing cities across Ukraine with hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, while Kyiv has been striking Russia’s oil industry and businesses.
About 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) of the package is military aid, including long-range strike weapons, combat drones and satellite technology, “so that Ukraine can also target Russian launch pads,” Merz said at a news conference. Germany is also providing some 350 million euros ($395 million) in energy aid ahead of winter for generators, substations and repair work, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the two countries also signed 15 agreements worth more than 8.5 billion euros ($9.6 billion), mostly covering security cooperation, weapons production and procurement, as well as a deal to expand their joint counter-drone efforts.
“This is weaponry that will help right now,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding they also discussed the need for air defense, which he called “key” at this time.
At the news conference, Zelenskyy said Merz’s visit amid Russian attacks was “an important signal of support for Ukraine and of the courage of Germany and all of Europe.”
Germany will fund the joint production of drones designed to intercept Russia’s jet-powered drones, Merz said, adding that “significant technical breakthroughs” in recent weeks were speeding up production. “This will quickly and tangibly strengthen Ukraine’s air defense,” he said. “And this strengthening is urgently needed.”
Zelenskyy called jet-powered drones a growing challenge, saying Russia had launched 900 of them this week alone and Ukraine was able to intercept only around half. He highlighted the role of F-16 fighter jets in countering the threat and said he would speak with U.S. President Donald Trump about securing more ammunition.
Germany is Ukraine’s largest donor, sending Kyiv more than 43.3 billion euros ($48.8 billion) since the war began, along with equipment and weapons.
Merz was accompanied by Economy and Energy Minister Katherina Reiche and a business delegation.
Zelenskyy said the U.S. was in contact with both Kyiv and Moscow and had proposed holding a trilateral meeting at the technical level by the end of October, possibly in the United Arab Emirates. He said he had told U.S. negotiators on Saturday that Ukraine was ready to take part, and that Kyiv was now waiting for Russia’s response.
He also accused Moscow of avoiding meaningful peace talks, and said Ukraine and Germany were working to advance diplomatic efforts with European participation.
Merz and Zelenskyy visited a building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in central Kyiv that was damaged in a Russian attack that killed two people on Monday, as air raid sirens sounded across the capital.
“These barbaric attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine must stop. These are daily war crimes,” Merz said at the site, a few hundred meters (yards) from the German Embassy. Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin, he called on him to end “this senseless war,” adding: “We’re ready to talk.”
Speaking in English, Zelenskyy called the attack on the academy “absolutely terrible” and noted that Russia was carrying out strikes even while the chancellor was in Kyiv. He thanked Merz for the visit, saying Ukraine was buoyed by its “strong partners.”
Merz said Russia’s aggression toward Germany went beyond a failed drone attack at Leipzig Airport in early August, pointing to daily attacks on the country’s data centers and data networks. “None of this will stop if we stop helping Ukraine,” he said. “On the contrary, it will only get worse after that.”
Germany has blamed Russia for the incident at Leipzig and in early September announced the closure of the German Consulate in St. Petersburg, the latest in a cycle of tit-for-tat moves.
Merz said Germany would take further steps to defend itself, including against Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers in the Baltic and North seas, airspace violations and drone attacks.
He also accused Russia of waging systematic disinformation campaigns in Germany through bots and collaborators. “This is the political battle of ideas that we must wage in Germany,” he said, adding that he was “more determined than ever” to fight it because the country’s “peaceful and free future” was at stake.
The German and Russian foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual meeting last month in what was believed to be the first such face-to-face meeting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia’s Sergey Lavrov rejected German calls to ease off its “dangerous path of escalation” toward the country, and accused Germany of being Ukraine’s main sponsor and seeking to be a leading military power in Europe.
Russian attacks damaged Kyiv’s Northern Bridge over the Dnieper River again on Sunday. Video circulating on social media showed a drone striking the bridge and exploding as vehicles crossed. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were wounded.
Russian assaults since Thursday have forced the full or partial closure of three of Kyiv’s six road bridges, suspending traffic and causing tailbacks in Moscow’s latest effort to disrupt life in the Ukrainian capital.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said Sunday it would intensify its strikes against military-industrial facilities and related infrastructure in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine, in response to Zelenskyy's comments in an interview with Reuters published Saturday that Ukraine would escalate its attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Zelenskyy said Sunday Russia was escalating attacks on civilian infrastructure, including bridges, data centers and mobile networks. He said Russia had previously targeted warehouses of Ukrainian delivery companies Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta, and that Ukraine had given “a fitting response” with strikes on Russian online retailer Wildberries.
“Now they are attacking bridges. Do they really think we won’t respond?” he said.
In other developments, one person was killed and 16 wounded Sunday in a Russian aerial bomb attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, local officials said.
Russia invaded its neighbor more than 4½ years ago, and there are no concrete signs that a peace settlement might be possible. Fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line snaking through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has been virtually deadlocked in recent months.
Dazio reported from Berlin and Morton from London. Associated Press journalist Pietro De Cristofaro in Berlin contributed to this report.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before a commemorative ceremony at the memorial of fallen Ukrainian soldiers at Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attend a commemorative ceremony at the memorial of fallen Ukrainian soldiers at Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attend a commemorative ceremony at the memorial of fallen Ukrainian soldiers at Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks to media with National Academy of science building damaged after a Russian drone strike, on the background, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, centre, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speak to media with National Academy of science building damaged after a Russian drone strike, on the background, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
An apartment is seen burned out following a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers extinguish a fire at a residential house destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026.(AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
General of NATO Mark Rutte delivers a statemen during a visit of the 1. German-Netherlands Corps alongside the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Rob Jetten, in Muenster, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
