Tom Cruise’s new absurdist dark comedy Digger has struggled at the box office, earning just $8 million in North America and $20 million worldwide during its opening weekend.
Digger's figures fell well short of earlier projections of $12 million to $15 million domestically, and nowhere near the $40 million opening that box office experts suggested a film of this scale would need to justify its budget.
With a reported production budget of $160 million to $180 million, Digger is facing the prospect of becoming one of the biggest box office flops of the year.
Warner Bros. is also reported to have spent around $100 million on marketing, putting the film’s estimated theatrical break-even point at approximately $350 million worldwide. The studio has reportedly disputed that figure, putting the break-even point closer to $300 million.
Either way, the film is unlikely to come close to making back its costs through theatrical ticket sales alone, potentially leaving the studio with losses of $150 million to $200 million.
View this post on Instagram
The disappointing opening is a major setback for Warner Bros., which has built a reputation for backing ambitious projects from established filmmakers.
It also raises questions about whether even one of Hollywood’s biggest stars can persuade audiences to turn out for a film that falls outside their expectations.
Cruise may be one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but even his name was not enough to sell an offbeat, R-rated environmental satire about an oil tycoon who triggers a potential global disaster.
Reviews and word-of-mouth can be crucial for films that do not have the built-in appeal of a major franchise. Unfortunately for Digger, neither critics nor audiences appeared particularly impressed.
The film received a 51% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a C+ grade in CinemaScore exit polls, suggesting that audiences who watched it were not especially enthusiastic about recommending it to others.
Warner Bros. even attempted to embrace the negative reviews in social media posts encouraging people to “decide for yourself” after critics described the film as “unpleasant” and “baffling”.
It was an unusual marketing approach, but negative reactions are not necessarily the kind of publicity that convinces people to spend their money on a cinema ticket.
View this post on Instagram
Like several ambitious projects backed by Warner Bros. co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, Digger came with a huge price tag that left little room for error.
The studio’s gamble on Sinners paid off, with the R-rated horror film earning $371 million worldwide against a reported budget of $90 million.
However, other expensive projects have struggled to find audiences. Joker: Folie à Deux, Mickey 17 and The Bride! all faced significant financial challenges, highlighting the risks studios take when investing heavily in unconventional films.
There were reasons to believe Digger could work.
Cruise has been a major box office draw since the 1980s, while director Alejandro G. Iñárritu has received critical acclaim for films including Birdman and The Revenant. Both films also performed well commercially and earned numerous Oscar nominations.
But even a combination of a major Hollywood star and an acclaimed director cannot guarantee success.
The lesson is not that studios should stop taking creative risks. Original films and distinctive filmmaking remain important to Hollywood’s future. However, spending upwards of $160 million on a dark comedy aimed at a potentially limited audience makes it considerably harder for a film to turn a profit.
International markets were expected to provide a boost after domestic box office projections began falling in the days leading up to release.
Cruise’s films have often earned the majority of their box office revenue outside North America, making international audiences particularly important to the success of his biggest releases.
Warner Bros. even appeared to lean into the idea that American audiences were the ones who disliked Digger, with a marketing post suggesting that people outside the US might feel differently about the film.
However, the international results were similarly disappointing. The film reportedly earned just $12 million across 73 markets during its opening weekend.
That weak performance leaves Digger with little obvious room to recover its enormous budget. Without stronger ticket sales overseas, the film cannot rely on international audiences to compensate for its disappointing North American opening.
Cruise has never needed a conventional promotional campaign to sell his biggest action films. For projects such as Mission: Impossible and Top Gun: Maverick, he can generate headlines by talking about the dangerous stunts he performs himself.
Whether he is climbing the Burj Khalifa or flying real fighter jets, Cruise has repeatedly given audiences a spectacle to look forward to before they even enter the cinema.
Promoting Digger was a different challenge. The actor’s most striking physical transformation involved spending around six hours in the makeup chair and wearing a fat suit to play the film’s eccentric central character.
Cruise did make promotional appearances, including on Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, The Jennifer Hudson Show and in a GQ cover story. However, his interviews largely focused on his enthusiasm for cinema rather than revealing much about the film itself.
His promotional approach was unusual, but it did not appear to generate the excitement needed to overcome the film’s negative reviews and unconventional premise.
Without the spectacle of a major action sequence or a familiar franchise to sell, the campaign struggled to give audiences a compelling reason to see Digger.
Warner Bros. also leaned heavily on Cruise’s long career in its marketing campaign for Digger.
Early trailers included a lengthy montage celebrating his 46-year career, featuring clips from films such as Top Gun, Risky Business, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men and Mission: Impossible before introducing audiences to his latest character.
The approach positioned Digger as a celebration of one of Hollywood’s most recognisable stars. However, there was a potential problem with that strategy.
Director Iñárritu has described the film as a “love letter for the young generation”, but many younger moviegoers may not have the same connection to Cruise’s earlier work as audiences who grew up watching his biggest hits.
Even for longtime fans, nostalgia alone is rarely enough to sell a cinema ticket. Audiences might admire Cruise’s career and appreciate his contribution to Hollywood without necessarily wanting to watch every film he makes.
The campaign’s early declaration that “We’ve never trusted a man more” was designed to underline Cruise’s reputation as a dependable movie star. The opening weekend suggests that his legacy was not enough to guarantee audiences would embrace this particular project.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Digger was the decision to cast Cruise in a role so different from the characters audiences have come to expect from him.
For decades, Cruise has established himself as one of Hollywood’s ultimate action stars. From Top Gun and Mission: Impossible to Jack Reacher and Edge of Tomorrow, audiences have become accustomed to seeing him running, fighting, flying and performing increasingly dangerous stunts himself.
That reputation has become one of his biggest commercial assets. Cruise is not simply a familiar face on a movie poster; he has become synonymous with large-scale action films and theatrical spectacle.
Digger asked audiences to see him in a very different light. Rather than another heroic pilot or secret agent, Cruise plays an eccentric oil tycoon in an absurdist dark comedy, undergoing a significant physical transformation for the role.
View this post on Instagram
There is nothing inherently wrong with Cruise moving outside his comfort zone. Some of his most interesting performances have come when he has played against type, and established stars need opportunities to take creative risks.
However, after years of cementing his status as an action hero, asking audiences to follow him into such an unconventional role was always going to be a gamble.
The disappointing opening does not necessarily mean audiences only want to see Cruise in action films. It does, however, highlight the difficulty of breaking away from an image that has been built over several decades.
Cruise’s name alone was not enough to persuade audiences to embrace Digger. For a film with such an enormous budget, that is an expensive reminder that even Hollywood’s biggest stars cannot guarantee a hit.
