Anne Hathaway is about to win the box office a third time this year, and Jim Carrey just got married while nobody was looking
'Verity' opens today against a Tom Cruise movie that might be one of his worst launches ever, and the Hathaway 2026 machine keeps rolling. Plus: the comedian pulled off a secret wedding.
In brief
Anne Hathaway is about to win the box office a third time this year, and Jim Carrey just got married while nobody was looking
Today is a good day to be Anne Hathaway. Verity, the Amazon MGM adaptation of Colleen Hoover's 2018 psychological thriller, opens nationwide this Friday, October 2, and the numbers already look strong enough to hand Hathaway her third No. 1 movie of 2026. Meanwhile, on the same date, Tom Cruise opened a film that is shaping up to be a painful weekend for the man who once saved cinema.
And somewhere in Los Angeles, Jim Carrey got quietly married and didn't tell anyone until TMZ found out. It's been that kind of week.
The Hathaway machine, still running
According to Variety, Verity is targeting a domestic debut of $30 million to $35 million from 3,510 theaters, which should be enough to register as Hathaway's third No. 1 opening of the year. The first two were The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey. Five films in a single calendar year. Hathaway is closing out 2026 with a fifth release and her first four films this year have grossed more than $2.5 billion combined.
That is a number that needs a moment. Two and a half billion dollars. In one year. From one actress.
In Verity, Dakota Johnson plays Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling novelist hired to finish the latest book from best-selling author Verity Crawford, played by Hathaway, after an accident leaves Verity unable to complete it. As Lowen works, she discovers a disturbing unfinished manuscript that raises questions about Verity's mental stability. Director Michael Showalter helms the script from Nick Antosca, with the film carrying an R rating and a 117-minute running time.
Critics have not been kind. The film sits at 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that has never stopped a Hoover movie before. It Ends With Us was panned in 2024 and still became a massive blockbuster with $351 million worldwide. The latest tracking suggests audiences are showing up in force, with Verity seeing outstanding walk-up business and strong Friday sales, putting it on track for a $25 million to $32 million domestic debut.
Deadline reported the domestic outlook at $30 million-plus from 3,510 theaters, noting the film has a definite chance to overperform thanks to walk-up business from Hoover's readers, and also projected $20 million to $25 million from 70 offshore territories, setting up a potential $50 million to $55 million global start. The $40 million production budget would make a strong debut a meaningful rebound for Amazon MGM after this summer's Masters of the Universe, which flopped with $113 million globally against a $200 million budget.
This is Hoover's fourth novel to get the theatrical treatment in two years. Her three prior films, It Ends With Us, Reminders of Him, and Regretting You, all scored at the box office. The last two were more modest, with Regretting You (2025) finishing at $90.5 million and Reminders of Him (2026) finishing at $56 million, both on budgets around $25 million. The CoHo-to-cinema pipeline is real, critics be damned.
Tom Cruise has a bad weekend
On the other side of the multiplex, things look considerably worse. Tom Cruise's Digger, the Alejandro G. Iñárritu film from Warner Bros., is shaping up to be one of the year's biggest bombs, with opening weekend projections of $12 million to $15 million from 3,300 North American screens. Gold Derby's current tracking puts Digger at $10 million for the weekend, which, for a wide-release Tom Cruise movie, is a historically rough number. For Warners, it is a stark reversal from the studio's 2025 slate, which produced commercial triumphs including Sinners, A Minecraft Movie, and Weapons.
The October 2 weekend has a history with this genre. The first weekend of October has been a reliable launch pad for female-skewing thrillers based on bestsellers, including Gone Girl in 2014 ($37.5 million) and The Girl on the Train in 2016 ($24.5 million). Verity fits that template exactly, and the audience for it and the audience for a Tom Cruise action-drama have almost no overlap. Cruise got squeezed out of his own opening weekend.
Meanwhile, Jim Carrey got married
Separate news, same 48-hour window. TMZ first reported that Jim Carrey has married his girlfriend Min Ah in a small private ceremony in Los Angeles. A spokesperson for Carrey confirmed the marriage to People on September 30, 2026.
The marriage is Carrey's third. He wed Melissa Womer, with whom he shares daughter Jane, in 1987, and the two divorced in 1995. He then married his Dumb and Dumber co-star Lauren Holly in 1996, and the couple split the following year.
Carrey and Min Ah have reportedly been seen together as far back as 2022, but details about when their romance officially began remain scarce. They did not make their relationship a major part of Carrey's public life and waited years before stepping out together at a major awards ceremony. The couple made their public debut on February 26 at the César Awards in Paris, where Carrey accepted an honorary award and, in a speech delivered in French, thanked his "sublime companion" and told her he loved her.
The reports did not say when or where in the city the ceremony took place, or who attended. Carrey had long said he was unlikely to wed again, but he never ruled it out entirely. Apparently the right person showed up and that settled it.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
