Warner Bros. flop 'Digger' opens weakly as Paramount merger looms

Warner Bros. Discovery’s latest release, the climate-change satire 'Digger' featuring Tom Cruise, opened to a meager $8 million domestic gross and $12 million from 74 foreign markets, despite a production budget reported between $125 million and $150 million and an additional $100 million spent on marketing. Critics gave the film a mixed 51 % rating on Rotten Tomatoes and audiences a CinemaScore of C+.

In contrast, Amazon MGM’s 'Verity', directed by Michael Showalter and starring Dakota Johnson, earned $32.6 million to secure the top spot in North American theaters. The box-office disappointment coincides with the finalization of Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, approved by Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín and slated to close within days.

Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are slated to depart, with mass layoffs expected under the incoming management team of David Ellison, Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg. Industry observers note that the merger may signal a shift away from big-budget, auteur-driven projects like 'Digger'.