LOS ANGELES, Oct 5 — 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 US$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.”
