‘Verity’ kills, Cruise bombs in N American movie theaters

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) —The bookish thriller "Verity" cleaned up in its North American box office debut this weekend, while Tom Cruise flopped in "Digger", playing a rich old guy who thinks he can save the world.

"Verity," an MGM film starring Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett, took in $32.6 million in its first weekend, industry monitor Exhibitor Relations said.

Adapted from a novel by Colleen Hoover, the story of a struggling writer hired to help a famous author finish her book scored an excellent opening for an original psychological thriller, said veteran industry watcher David A. Gross of FranchiseRe Movies.

"The weekend figure is well above average for the genre, in spite of weak reviews and audience ratings," he wrote. "The reception is not hurting the film — audiences are showing up in big numbers."

Holding on to second place was Sony's "Resident Evil," with $12.5 million this weekend, bringing its North American total to $125 million after three weekends in theaters.

"Heart of the Beast," starring Brad Pitt as a former soldier and his loyal but traumatised combat dog as they survive in the Alaskan wilderness, brought in an estimated $11 million for Paramount on its second weekend. It stayed in third place.

Then in fourth with debut revenue of just $8 million was "Digger," a black comedy starring Cruise as a powerful man who sets off a climate disaster, then tries to show he is the one to save the world from it.

"For a black comedy, the numbers are not bad, but black comedies are small films and this isn't a small film, it's a Tom Cruise movie," Gross wrote.

Dropping one rung to fifth, also with $8 million, was "Primetime," starring Robert Pattinson as reality TV host Chris Hansen.

The film is based on a real-life US show from the mid-2000s called "To Catch a Predator" in which Hansen and his production staff lured would-be pedophiles into sting operations where police were waiting to make on-screen arrests.

Rounding out the top 10:

"Forgotten Island" ($7.2 mn)

"Avengers Endgame: Encore" ($4.4 mn)

"Practical Magic 2" ($2.65 mn)

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" ($2.45 mn)

"The Odyssey" ($1.3 mn)