‘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.