Tom Cruise’s Digger Bombs With $8 Million Opening, Heads for One of His Biggest Career Flops

With Digger, Tom Cruise has landed on one of his career's biggest flops. Alejandro González Iñárritu's film has become a massive fumble, continuing an abysmal year for Warner Bros. that also witnessed the staggering disaster of Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride!

Digger raked in approximately $12 million from international markets, taking its worldwide opening total to around $20 million. That figure is a major concern for Warner Bros., considering the movie reportedly cost between $125 million and $150 million to produce, with some estimates putting the budget even higher. This is deeply concerning.

Digger's Reception

The movie's dismal reception pushed Warner Bros. to take an unusual approach in its marketing, using criticism of the film as part of its advertising and encouraging audiences to make up their own minds. Its chances of gaining awards recognition seem dodgy. The film received a C+ CinemaScore from moviegoers, placing it among the weakest audience grades of Cruise’s career. Critics have also been divided over the movie, which currently holds a 51% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter’s chief film critic David Rooney was particularly harsh in his assessment, describing the film as “dead and buried.”

Cruise expressed his pride in Digger on social media and his gratitude to the film’s cast and crew in a social media post on Saturday. “I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for your dedication, hard work, and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we created,” he wrote.

Digger becomes one of the biggest commercial failures of Tom Cruise’s career. The actor has experienced other notable setbacks, including The Mummy, which reportedly lost around $95 million and effectively brought Universal’s planned Dark Universe franchise to an end.

Cruise’s 2007 political drama Lions for Lambs had an even weaker opening than Digger, but the financial stakes were far lower, with a production budget of roughly $35 million. Digger, by comparison, is already being placed among Hollywood’s major box-office disasters, alongside expensive flops such as John Carter, Cutthroat Island and The Lone Ranger.

Meanwhile, Verity, starring Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway, ruled the weekend and opened at No. 1 with approximately $32.6 million in North America. The impressive opening pitched Amazon MGM's thriller at a clear advantage over Digger. The Cruise-starrer also features Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons and Sandra Hüller.