The film starring Tom Cruise has not managed to escape its poor reception at the box office, despite being described as a climate satire.
According to Variety, the Tom Cruise-starring, Alejandro G. Iñárritu-helmed picture Digger took in $8 million domestically during its opening weekend. Its foreign gross came to $12 million, pushing the total opening weekend sum to $20 million. With production costs sitting somewhere between $160 and $180 million, the movie has now been officially labeled a box-office disaster.
This marks the final Warner Bros. release before the studio merges with Paramount to form Skydance, effectively closing out this chapter for the long-running film company.
The Numbers That Define the Failure
The domestic debut of Lions for Lambs brought in $6.7 million during its opening weekend, a result that reflects the performance of the war drama directed by Digger’s opening is the lowest for Cruise in 19 years. According to Variety, the film has the lowest box-office opening for Cruise since 2007′.
That film cost markedly less to make, with a budget of $35 million. The financial loss from Digger’s $160-180 million price tag means the film’ is far larger than the one from Lions for Lambs.
| Film | Opening Weekend Domestic | Budget | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digger | $8 million | $160-180 million | Box-office bomb |
| Lions for Lambs | $6.7 million | $35 million | Lowest-ever opening for Cruise |
The contrast could not be more striking. Lions for Lambs fell short on its own terms, a modest failure. But Digger failed on such a grand scale that its star’s prior misstep appears merely as a minor footnote by comparison.
The Bet Warner Bros. Lost
Warner Bros. banked on Cruise’s star power to deliver success for Digger. The film’s box office is shaping up to be one of the worst of the famed actor’s career. Variety notes that potentially worse than 2017’s The Mummy, which stopped Universal’s Dark Universe franchise plans outright.
A disaster ended The Mummy’s franchise before it could get started, and Digger now risks the same thing for whatever Warner Bros. had lined up next.
The Critical Response
Variety’s assessment of the film is less than favorable, though the outlet provides no specific score or count to support its judgment.
Following Digger’s catastrophic opening, Warner Bros. has leaned into the film’s divisiveness with a new campaign that pits negative American reviews against positive international ones. Cruise posted a tribute to the film’s cast and crew on Instagram, saying that he was “so proud of what we created.”
Cruise’s reply does not address whether the film was a success or ask forgiveness for it. Instead, he speaks highly of the work itself, which is the most candid reaction open to him.
The Week’s Other Winner
Verity, based on Colleen Hoover’s work, led the box office this weekend with $32.6 million earned domestically and another $30 million from international sales. Anne Hathaway now has three number-one openings for the year, with The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey joining Verity among her top debuts.
Verity is a solid result for a film that is not a disaster. Hathaway has had a strong year across three adaptations, and Verity’s $32.6 million domestic total is comfortably above Digger’s $8 million.
The End of an Era
Before Warner Bros. merged with Paramount to become Skydance, Digger was the studio’s final release. The film marks a difficult conclusion to this chapter in the history of the studio.
A film this costly deserves to mark the peak of a studio’s output, not its end. Its position as the final production instead seals the studio’s fate. The moment is harsh, punishing an effort of this scale by placing it at the close rather than the summit.
What This Means for Cruise
Cruise has had bad weekends before. 2017’s The Mummy was a disaster that ended a franchise. Lions for Lambs was a modest failure. Digger is something else entirely.
The film’s $160-180 million price tag means its financial loss is far larger than Lions for Lambs’s was. Cruise’s star power did not protect him this time.
He has faced such troubles earlier, and he has shown he can recover from them. His career still stretches ahead of him, and he has already demonstrated his capacity for recovery. Yet this particular setback will hurt more than most.
Source material: “Diggers box office bomb is Tom Cruises worst opening in 19 years,” Mashable.
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