What Happened
Amazon MGM Studios' Verity opened in 3,510 North American theaters on Friday, October 2, and took the top spot on the daily chart with a Friday of roughly $14.5 million, a figure that includes about $4.5 million from Thursday previews. Pre-release projections had settled around $30 million to $35 million for the full weekend, which would put the Colleen Hoover adaptation comfortably ahead of everything else in theaters.
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The film stars Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett and is directed by Michael Showalter. It is adapted from Hoover's bestselling 2018 thriller novel. Trade reports put the production budget at about $40 million, a modest number for a studio thriller with two marquee leads.
The same weekend brought a rougher result for Warner Bros.' Digger, a Tom Cruise political satire. Tracking before reviews landed had pointed to something near $18 million to $20 million, but forecasts slid into the $7 million to $12 million range as notices came in mixed. That would be Cruise's lowest wide-release opening since Lions for Lambs in 2007, according to industry coverage. Holdovers such as Resident Evil, Heart of the Beast and Primetime filled out the rest of the top five.
Because the weekend was still unfolding when this was written, the Friday number and the projections are the firmest data points. Final studio estimates arrive Sunday, and actuals follow on Monday.
Why It Matters
Hoover adaptations have become a reliable, if uneven, corner of the adult-skewing box office. It Ends with Us opened to about $50 million in 2024 and finished with roughly $148.5 million domestic and $351 million worldwide, the benchmark every later film is measured against. The follow-ups have landed lower: Reminders of Him opened to about $13 million and Regretting You to about $17 million, both topping out near $48 million domestically.
A $30 million-plus start for Verity would sit between those two tiers, well above the recent mid-teens openings and clearly short of the 2024 peak. For a film that cost an estimated $40 million, that is a healthy position. It also means the title is on a path to profitability without needing the kind of run that only a breakout can deliver.
The result also lands on a strong year for Hathaway. She has appeared in The Devil Wears Prada 2, which reached about $693 million worldwide, and The Odyssey, which passed $1.7 billion. Her smaller releases have been less consistent, with The End of Oak Street opening to roughly $21 million, which some analysts had described as a floor for Verity. Clearing that mark matters for how studios read her pull outside franchise settings.
For Amazon MGM, the weekend is a data point in a larger question: can a streaming-first parent turn theatrical releases into repeatable business? A mid-budget, star-led thriller that wins its frame is the kind of result the studio needs to point to.
Reaction
Critics were lukewarm. Verity sits in the mid-40s percent range on Rotten Tomatoes and at 43 on Metacritic, which is not the profile of a film that usually opens above $30 million. Audiences clearly did not wait for reviews. Box office watchers pointed to unusually strong walk-up sales on Friday, a sign that the book's readership, and not the critics, drove ticket buying.
The contrast with Digger is what made the weekend a talking point. Cruise's film reportedly earned a C+ CinemaScore and a 52 percent critics' score, and reports of its cost, ranging from the reported $125 million greenlight to $160 million or more after overruns, turned a soft opening into a bigger story. The gap between a cheap crowd-pleaser and an expensive prestige-leaning bet is easy to read in a single weekend.
Whether the strong Friday translates into good word of mouth is the open question for the second weekend.
What's Next
The key number is the second-weekend drop. Thrillers built on a book's fan base tend to be front-loaded, and a dip of 55 to 65 percent would be normal. A steeper fall would suggest that the opening was driven by a one-time rush of readers, while a gentler one could support a domestic total well beyond the opening weekend multiple of a typical thriller.
International rollout and home entertainment windows will also shape the final picture. Hoover's readership is global, and It Ends with Us earned more than $200 million of its $351 million total outside North America. Amazon's streaming service is the obvious long-term home, so the theatrical run's job is to establish the film's value before it moves there.
On the competition side, the calendar stays busy. Resident Evil, Heart of the Beast and Primetime continue to play, and Digger will need a quick recovery in word of mouth to avoid a short run. The next two weekends will show whether Verity is a one-weekend event or a title with legs.
Closing Thoughts
There is a lesson in the numbers that is easy to overlook: the audience for a well-known book can be more predictable than the audience for a famous actor. Verity did not need glowing reviews, and Digger could not rely on a star's name. Both facts point to the same conclusion, which is that built-in interest, cheap production and clear marketing still outperform expensive bets with uncertain appeal.
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For moviegoers, the weekend is a reminder that October is no longer a dumping ground. Adult-oriented thrillers can open to numbers that would have been unthinkable in the same slot a decade ago, and the studios that find the right balance of cost and audience appetite will keep winning these quieter frames. Whether Verity grows into a bigger story will depend on the next few days, but its opening already tells us who is showing up to theaters and why.
Sources: High On Films, Boxoffice Pro, Comic Basics, The Numbers.
한글 요약
아마존 MGM의 스릴러 Verity(앤 해서웨이·다코타 존슨·조쉬 하트넷 출연, 콜린 후버 원작)가 10월 2일 북미 3,510개 극장에서 개봉해 프리뷰 450만 달러를 포함한 금요일 약 1,450만 달러로 일일 박스오피스 1위를 차지했습니다. 주말 전체는 3,000만~3,500만 달러가 예상됩니다.
제작비 약 4,000만 달러에 비해 안정적인 출발이며, 콜린 후버 원작 영화 중에서는 It Ends with Us(약 5,000만 달러)보다는 낮지만 Regretting You·Reminders of Him보다는 높은 수준입니다. 평단 평가는 로튼토마토 40%대 중반으로 엇갈렸지만 현장 구매 관객이 많았습니다. 같은 주말 개봉한 톰 크루즈의 Digger는 2007년 이후 최저 오프닝이 예상됩니다.
이제 관건은 2주차 하락폭입니다. 원작 팬덤에 기댄 영화는 초반에 몰리는 경향이 있어 55~65% 하락이 일반적이며, 이를 얼마나 방어하느냐가 최종 흥행 규모를 가를 전망입니다. 참고: High On Films, Boxoffice Pro, Comic Basics, The Numbers.