Tom Cruise's latest film "Digger" flopped spectacularly in its opening weekend, grossing just $20 million globally and handing the superstar actor one of the worst debuts of his career. The Alejandro G. Iñárritu-directed climate change satire took in a paltry $8 million at the North American box office, while international sales from 74 markets added only $12 million.

The disastrous opening comes as a bitter final note for Warner Bros. as a standalone studio. The Paramount Skydance merger with Warner Bros. Discovery received approval from the U.S. district court last Wednesday, with the One Hundred Ten Billion Dollar deal set to close Tuesday. Mass layoffs are anticipated to follow the integration of the two studios.

Budget and Marketing Costs Mount

The rough start is particularly painful for a movie that cost at least $125 million to make, with some reports pegging the production budget closer to $150 million. The marketing spend is estimated at another $100 million. After reviews so bad that Warner Bros. opted to run "decide for yourself" ads, box office estimates for "Digger" had been revised down over the past week.

Critics have mostly slammed "Digger" as a strained climate change farce, though Cruise's over-the-top performance was received more warmly. Audiences agreed with critics, giving the film a "C+" CinemaScore. Box office experts say a movie of this size would have needed a debut near $40 million to justify its price tag.

Verity Takes Top Spot

The number one spot in North American theaters went to Amazon MGM's "Verity," which debuted with $32.6 million. The Michael Showalter-directed film stars Dakota Johnson as a writer hired to ghostwrite a book series by an incapacitated author, played by Anne Hathaway. The strong opening extends the winning streak for Colleen Hoover adaptations at the box office.

"Digger" had been positioned as a potential awards-season heavyweight, dated almost exactly the same as Warner Bros.' "One Battle After Another" was last year. That Tom Cruise film was a similarly politically charged release that handed a large budget to a top filmmaker working from an original story, but "One Battle After Another" grossed $213.2 million worldwide and won best picture at the Academy Awards.

Cruise's Recent Track Record

Cruise has spent most of the last decade starring in Mission: Impossible movies and "Top Gun: Maverick," franchises that have allowed him to remain a top action hero into his 60s. The 64-year-old's last major box office disappointment was 2017's "The Mummy" remake, which grossed $409.2 million worldwide on a $195 million budget.

In a flush year for Hollywood, Warner Bros. has failed to get one film to $100 million in the U.S., though its December release, "Dune: Part III," will easily cross that threshold. Film consultant David A. Gross, who publishes a newsletter on box office figures, wrote that "Digger collapsed this weekend and the new management of the combined Paramount and Warner Bros., David Ellison and Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will soon decide what kind of movies they want from WB."

Marvel Rerelease Makes History

Last weekend's top film, "Avengers: Endgame Encore," slid to seventh place with $4.4 million domestically and $14.4 million overseas. But the Marvel rerelease's second week allowed "Endgame" to nudge ahead of "Avatar" to reclaim the title of highest grossing film ever, not accounting for inflation. The two films have traded spots in recent years with rereleases: "Endgame" now tallies Two Point Nine Two Five Five Billion Dollars, while "Avatar" is at Two Point Nine Two Three Seven Billion Dollars.