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👋 Good morning! Before there were studios, streamers, or A24, the biggest name in arts financing was the Vatican. On Friday, Pope Leo XIV said the Church wants to "renew an alliance" with artists to safeguard human creativity from AI, because algorithms "lack the spark of the human." He's made it clear he's on Hollywood's side: last year he invited Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett, and a few dozen other stars to the Vatican. Specifics are TBD, but the last time popes got this involved, we got the Sistine Chapel.
Welcome back to The Dailies. Hope the weekend was restful, or that you at least saw something good. Box office numbers are in and there’s plenty of industry news to cover. Here's what you missed. 👇
BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ ‘Verity’ wins, and nobody’s digging ‘Digger’…
Anne Hathaway in 'Verity' (Amazon MGM Studios)
| WEEKEND TOTAL $99M| VS. 2025 +18.9%| VS. LAST WKND -22.4% | |
Verity NEW Amazon MGM · $32.6M domestic weekend · Global total: $62.5M · Budget: $40M · 🍅: 33% The second-best start for a Colleen Hoover adaptation behind 'It Ends With Us' ($50M), and Anne Hathaway's third No. 1 opening of the year. The crowd was 78% female, and they gave it a C+ CinemaScore. | |
Resident Evil WK 3 Sony · $12.5M domestic weekend (-46%) · Domestic total: $124.9M · Global total: $245M · Budget: $75M | |
Heart of the Beast WK 2 Paramount · $11M domestic weekend (-45%) · Domestic total: $38.4M · Global total: $98.7M · Budget: $82M Brad Pitt's survival thriller is days away from the $100M mark worldwide, but it'll still need strong legs to earn its money back. | |
Primetime WK 2 A24 · $8M domestic weekend (-58%) · Domestic total: $34.1M · Budget: $15M A steep drop, but it has already more than doubled its budget at home with most overseas markets still to come. | |
Digger NEW Warner Bros. · $8M domestic weekend · Global total: $20M · Budget: $125M · 🍅: 51% A flop any way you slice it, and Tom Cruise's lowest opening in 19 years. More on this one below. | |
Forgotten Island WK 2 Universal · $7.2M domestic weekend (-44%) · Domestic total: $23.6M · Global total: $29.2M · Budget: $80M | |
Avengers: Endgame Encore WK 2 Disney · $4.4M domestic weekend (-83%) · Budget: $356M Most fans showed up the first weekend, and that turned out to be plenty. 'Endgame' is now at $2.925B worldwide, which puts it back ahead of 'Avatar' ($2.923B) as the biggest movie of all time. | |
Drishyam — The Conclusion NEW Zee Studios · $2.7M domestic weekend The Indian thriller franchise's finale did it on just 541 screens, the best per-screen average in the top 10 after 'Verity.' | |
Practical Magic 2 WK 4 Warner Bros. · $2.7M domestic weekend (-53%) · Domestic total: $64.7M · Budget: $75M | |
Spider-Man: Brand New Day WK 10 Sony · $2.45M domestic weekend (-40%) · Domestic total: $954.5M · Global total: $2.5B · Budget: $225M | |
The bigger picture: even with a Tom Cruise movie cratering, it was a pretty healthy weekend. 'Verity' picked up the slack, the holdovers held, and the frame finished up 19% from the same weekend last year. The year as a whole is running 19% ahead of 2025 too, and should cross $8B any day now (last year didn't get there until December).
Up next: 'Other Mommy' (Universal) and 'The Social Reckoning' (Sony) hit theaters next weekend, and 'Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother' (Amazon MGM) goes wide.
CLOSEUP
Warner’s final film before the merger is a flop…
Tom Cruise in ‘Digger’ (Warner Bros.)
Warner Bros. had one more movie to release before Paramount takes over this week. It did not go well. 'Digger,' the Tom Cruise satire from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, opened to just $8M domestically and $20M worldwide, Cruise's lowest debut since 2007's 'Lions for Lambs.' The details:
A month ago, it was tracking for $20M or more and getting Oscar talk for Cruise.
The studio puts the budget at $125M, though reports have it at $160M to $180M, plus about $100M in marketing.
It needs $300M to $350M worldwide to break even, and losses are projected at $150M or more.
Cruise gets first-dollar gross (a cut of revenue before the studio recoups its costs), so Warner's path to profit is even longer.
Audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore.
So what went wrong? One thing people are pointing to is that the marketing was all Tom Cruise and no clear concept. Plenty of viewers said they still didn't know what the movie was about after watching the trailer. Gen Z are the biggest moviegoers right now, and they want to know what they're paying for. "It stars your dad's favorite actor" isn't a pitch.
Meanwhile, Amazon MGM had a hunch. It moved 'Verity' onto the same weekend on purpose, reportedly after catching wind early that 'Digger' wouldn't connect. The bet was that a Colleen Hoover adaptation, with a built-in (and mostly female) fanbase from the book, could win the weekend outright. It did.
A rough year: under film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, Warner had a huge 2025 with 'A Minecraft Movie,' 'Sinners,' 'Weapons,' and Best Picture winner 'One Battle After Another.' This year went the other way. None of the studio's 2026 releases has passed $100M domestically, and 'The Bride!' and 'Supergirl' both lost big.
Looking ahead… Paramount's deal for Warner is expected to close tomorrow, and De Luca and Abdy won't be joining the merged company. That decision was reported before 'Digger' opened, and David Ellison reportedly tied it to restructuring and the roughly $80B in debt the combined company will carry. Paramount's Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg are expected to run both film studios.
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CLOSEUP
🛒 Indie film has buyers, but not enough movies?
Apparently indie film's oldest problem has just flipped. For years, the complaint was too many movies chasing too few buyers. Now, after a record $4.7B summer box office, dealmakers say distributors are hungry and there aren't enough distinctive, broadly commercial films to sell them. Why buyers are hungry:
Two big recent festival deals, 'Obsession' ($15M at TIFF) and 'The Invite' ($12M at Sundance), both came out of bidding wars.
Moviegoers are showing up for more than just tentpoles. 'Obsession' has made $500M+ worldwide, 'Backrooms' $400M+, and 'The Invite' $60M.
Most recently, 'Primetime' opened above $19M domestically late last month on a $15M budget.
What's squeezing the supply? Two things, according to dealmakers. Everyday line items like craft services and transportation have made U.S. shoots prohibitively expensive, so fewer films get made. The second is what happens after theaters. Indies used to count on a reliable second payday from licensing their films to pay-TV channels. Now that studios own their own streamers and stock them with their own movies, those deals have dried up, which leaves buyers less willing to gamble on anything short of an obvious hit.
Some filmmakers aren't buying this story. They argue plenty of movies exist and distributors just lack the nerve to back them. The programmer who premiered 'Obsession' (made for just $750K, exactly what a cautious buyer passes on) says the bigger issue is distributors underinvesting in getting films in front of audiences.
Looking ahead… One of the two problems has a possible fix in Congress right now. A bipartisan tax credit bill, introduced last month, would cover 20% of a film's labor costs (30% for indies) and stack with state incentives. The other problem, how indies earn money after theaters, has no fix in sight.
ICYMI
⚡️ Quick hits…
🏷️ The combined Paramount-Warner Bros. will be called Skydance, David Ellison announced Friday. It's basically an umbrella, with Paramount, Warner Bros., and their other marquee brands living underneath it. The announcement video cycles through shots of their iconic IP, opening with 'Titanic' (…hopefully that’s not an omen).
🎮 Sony's the frontrunner to land the 'Battlefield' movie, with Christopher McQuarrie writing and directing and Michael B. Jordan producing (and maybe starring). Warner Bros., Amazon MGM, Universal, and Netflix all bid too. The video game adaptation will go up against Paramount's Taylor Sheridan 'Call of Duty' movie.
📚 Stat: TV now leans on existing IP more than movies do. Adaptations made up 13.8% of new shows in 2025 vs. 11.5% of new films, and it's working (they drew 37.5% of TV demand). Books are the biggest source of adaptations across film and TV at 37.6%, way ahead of buzzier sources like video games (1.6%).
🏰 Disney's sending a bunch of titles to Netflix, including all five 'Ice Age' movies and 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians.' The idea is to use its rival's 325M subscribers to build hype for upcoming sequels and new seasons, and get paid doing it. The days of streaming exclusivity and walled gardens are very, very over.
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
Jennifer Lawrence is reuniting with 'No Hard Feelings' director Gene Stupnitsky for Apple’s rom-com 'One Month Mark.' (more)
'Barbie 2' looks to be back on at the soon-to-be Skydance, which is reportedly working to lock in the Greta Gerwig sequel after it stalled over costs. (more)
'Jurassic World' may have its next director in J.A. Bayona, the frontrunner after Gareth Edwards walked over creative differences. (more)
'The Watcher' is finally coming back for S2 at Netflix, with Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale returning four years after the show’s debut. (more)
'A Different World' is renewed for S2 at Netflix just eight days after the sequel series premiered. (more)
Skydance Org Chart 🪑
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-The Dailies Team
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