Tom Cruise’s Digger is already in the red — $12 million in previews, a $125 million budget, and no sign of a comeback. The film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and billed as an environmental thriller, is projected to open with just $12–15 million. That’s not a soft launch. It’s a fire alarm. Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson’s Verity, a Colleen Hoover adaptation, is set to debut at $30–35 million, easily claiming the top spot. Amazon MGM’s thriller has already pulled in $4.5 million from previews, more than double what Digger has managed. And it’s not even out yet. Verity is expected to become the biggest hit in the recent string of Hoover adaptations, surpassing Reminders of Him ($17M) and Regretting You ($13.6M), though it’ll likely fall short of It Ends With Us’s $50M opening. Still, for a movie produced on a $40 million budget, that’s a clean win. But Digger? It’s not just underperforming. It’s being called one of this year’s biggest box office bombs. The film’s $1.2 million preview haul is a whisper compared to its staggering production cost, which reportedly ballooned past $160 million. Cruise’s latest isn’t just facing bad reviews, it’s facing a reckoning. The studio’s response? Lean into the hate. “See it for yourself,” they’re saying. But audiences aren’t buying. Not when the numbers don’t lie. And while Hollywood debates whether Digger is a bold statement or a disaster, the real story is elsewhere: in the quiet triumph of Verity, and the growing power of stories that don’t need a star to carry them. The next question isn’t whether Digger will survive. It’s whether anyone still cares.