Samwise Film & TV Marketing Newsletter
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Verity Opens at No. 1 with About $33 Million, Second-Best Colleen Hoover Debut
Amazon MGM Studios’ Verity opened at No. 1 with about $33 million from 3,510 theaters, the second-best opening for a Colleen Hoover adaptation, Deadline reports. The R-rated thriller starring Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett earned a C+ CinemaScore, the worst of Hoover’s adaptations so far; It Ends with Us drew an A-. Audiences were 79% female, and 50% said they would definitely recommend it. Premium large formats accounted for 28% of the weekend, not counting Imax. The overall weekend was estimated at $101.3 million, up 25% from a year ago.
Digger Opens to $8 Million, Tom Cruise’s Lowest Debut in 19 Years
Warner Bros.’ Digger opened to about $8 million at 3,321 theaters, the lowest debut for Tom Cruise since 2007’s Lions for Lambs, which opened to $6.7 million, Deadline reports. The Alejandro G. Iñárritu film has a production cost of more than $160 million and earned a C+ CinemaScore. Audiences were 73% male, and 60% were ages 18 to 34. RelishMix said word of mouth slid from 8.1 on Sept. 15 to 6.4, and the film’s 289.5 million social media reach was 66% below that of Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning.
New Digger Ad Sets International Critics Against U.S. Reviews
Warner Bros. rolled out a new online ad for Digger that sets glowing quotes from international critics against negative reviews from U.S. outlets, The Hollywood Reporter says. The spot pairs a French critic’s “A Gem of Intelligence” with the New York Post’s “An Unintentionally Bad Movie,” and ends with the character played by Tom Cruise saying, “You decide which!” Rotten Tomatoes lists the film at 50 percent positive, while French site AlloCiné averages 3.2 out of 5 across 30 reviews, though the two metrics are not directly comparable. The studio had predicted a $12 million to $15 million opening.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter
Avengers: Endgame Retakes All-Time Box Office Record From Avatar with Encore Reissue
Avengers: Endgame has taken back the unadjusted record for highest-grossing film of all time from Avatar, TheWrap reports, after its “Encore” reissue added $126 million, including $36.2 million domestic and $89.8 million overseas, for a lifetime global gross of $2.92 billion. The reissue featured a tweaked ending and three new mid-credit and post-credit scenes connected to Avengers: Doomsday, which has close to $60 million in presales, according to theatrical sources. About 70% of those presales came through Disney and Marvel’s Infinity Vision campaign, which guides moviegoers to premium formats other than Imax, where the film will not screen for at least its first three weeks.
The History of Concrete Passes $1 Million, Year’s Top Platform Documentary
John Wilson’s The History of Concrete passed $1 million at the box office on Saturday, making it the highest-grossing platform-distributed documentary of 2026, IndieWire reports. The Magnolia release reached the mark after 16 days in theaters. It grossed just over $450,000 from 160 screens over the weekend, putting its total just north of $1.2 million. Magnolia acquired the film out of the Sundance Film Festival. It also shattered records at New York’s IFC Center, becoming the theater’s second-highest-grossing debut behind Parasite, and last week earned $47,510 at Chicago’s Music Box.
Prime Video Releases First Barbershop Series Teaser, with Premiere Set for Feb. 10
Prime Video shared the first teaser for Barbershop, its eight-episode series based on the film franchise, on Saturday at CultureCon. All episodes premiere Feb. 10, 2027. Jermaine Fowler stars as Travis “Trav” Porter, who follows in the footsteps of his grandfather Eddie, played in the films by Cedric the Entertainer, as a barber at Calvin’s in Chicago. The cast includes Brett Gray, Punkie Johnson, Roy Wood Jr. and Bokeem Woodbine, and Kevin Hart is among the producers. The franchise launched with the 2002 film, and Marshall Todd, who co-wrote it, is co-showrunner with Max Searle.
Sorkin Says Sony Made Considerable Offer to Bring Eisenberg Back for Follow-Up Film
Aaron Sorkin says Sony Pictures made a considerable offer to lure Jesse Eisenberg back to his Oscar-nominated role as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning, but the actor declined, TheWrap reports. Sorkin told Entertainment Weekly: “I knew what the studio was offering him to do it, but money does not motivate Jesse.” He said it “never occurred to me that he wouldn’t want to do it.” Jeremy Strong plays Zuckerberg instead in the follow-up to The Social Network, which Sorkin directs after David Fincher helmed the first film. The film opens in theaters Friday.
Dakota Johnson Mentions Verity in SNL Monologue as Taylor Swift Interrupts
Dakota Johnson hosted Saturday Night Live this week and noted in her monologue that her new movie, Verity, is a psychosexual erotic thriller, TheWrap reports. She opened by joking that she is still promoting her 2024 superhero movie Madame Web because “it hasn’t made any money yet.” Taylor Swift then interrupted the monologue after Johnson called her a “literal therapist,” replying, “I’m not your therapist, actually,” and adding that Johnson shows up at her house “with an empty bottle of wine.” Swift’s appearance came less than a week after she debuted the “Patient Zero” music video, in which Johnson starred.
Box Office Top 20 — Weekend Estimates (Oct. 2–4, 2026)
Sunday studio estimates. Ranks 1–10: Deadline; ranks 11–20: The Numbers. Wk = week in release.
| # | Title | Weekend | Wk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verity (New) | $32.6M | 1 |
| 2 | Resident Evil | $12.0M | 3 |
| 3 | Heart of the Beast | $11.0M | 2 |
| 4 | Primetime | $8.0M | 2 |
| 5 | Digger (New) | $8.0M | 1 |
| 6 | Forgotten Island | $7.2M | 2 |
| 7 | Avengers: Endgame Encore | $4.4M | 2 |
| 8 | Practical Magic 2 | $2.7M | 4 |
| 9 | Drishyam – The Conclusion (New) | $2.45M | 1 |
| 10 | Spider-Man: Brand New Day | $2.4M | 10 |
| 11 | The Odyssey | $1.3M | 12 |
| 12 | Daniel and the Fiery Furnace | $663K | 3 |
| 13 | Beware Boiúna (New) | $550K | 1 |
| 14 | The History of Concrete | $450K | 3 |
| 15 | Insidious: Out of the Further | $310K | 7 |
| 16 | Moonlight 10th Anniversary Remastered (Reissue) | $301K | 1 |
| 17 | Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother | $228K | 2 |
| 18 | Buddy | $209K | 6 |
| 19 | Runner | $163K | 4 |
| 20 | PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie | $103K | 8 |
Every newsletter preserved and searchable
Curated by JD · samwise.agency