Tom Cruise is facing one of the biggest box-office disasters of his legendary Hollywood career, and the financial fallout from his latest movie could be even worse than anyone initially feared.
The 64-year-old superstar, who has spent decades dominating theaters with blockbuster hits, is watching his ambitious new film, Digger, struggle spectacularly at the box office. Industry reports now suggest the costly production could lose as much as $250 million, turning what was supposed to be a bold career move into an expensive Hollywood embarrassment.
The dark comedy, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu, opened on October 2 to a disappointing $8 million across more than 3,300 North American theaters. It managed just $20 million worldwide during its opening weekend, a stunningly weak debut for a movie carrying Cruise’s name.
Three weeks after its release, the situation has only deteriorated. According to Box Office Mojo, Digger has earned approximately $46.5 million worldwide, nowhere near what it would need to recover its enormous production and marketing costs.
The financial stakes are staggering. Although Warner Bros. has cited a production budget of $125 million, industry estimates have placed the actual cost closer to $160 million to $180 million. The studio reportedly spent another $100 million promoting the film.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Warner Bros. could lose at least $150 million on the project, while TheWrap cited an even more alarming projection of approximately $250 million in losses, including anticipated revenue from streaming and other platforms.
For Cruise, the disappointment is particularly striking because Digger represented a dramatic departure from the action-packed movies that made him one of the world’s most recognizable stars.
Instead of performing death-defying stunts or saving the world as Ethan Hunt, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a powerful oil tycoon desperately trying to repair his reputation after triggering an environmental catastrophe.
The unconventional satire features a celebrated supporting cast, including John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller and Jesse Plemons. But even that star power wasn’t enough to convince moviegoers to fill theater seats.
Critics were sharply divided, with the film earning a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Opening-night audiences gave it a disappointing C+ CinemaScore, although its verified audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes has been considerably more positive.
The disastrous opening quickly turned into an even bigger problem. Ticket sales plunged 60% during the movie’s second weekend before dropping nearly another 72% the following weekend. By its third weekend, the film’s theater count had fallen dramatically.
The marketing campaign also attracted attention after Warner Bros. took the unusual approach of incorporating negative reviews into advertisements, encouraging audiences to judge the controversial movie for themselves.
The disappointing performance has fueled questions about Cruise’s ability to draw audiences outside the blockbuster franchises that have defined much of his recent career. His opening-weekend numbers were his weakest as a leading man since 2007’s Lions for Lambs.
RadarOnline has also reported claims from an unnamed insider that Cruise is privately furious about the movie’s failure and frustrated with those around him. However, those allegations have not been independently confirmed, and there is no verified evidence that the actor has blamed colleagues for the disappointing results.
Despite the financial catastrophe, Digger has received praise from some critics for its ambitious storytelling and Cruise’s willingness to take an unusual creative risk.
Still, the numbers tell a brutal story. For a star whose name has been synonymous with box-office success for more than 40 years, Digger is shaping up to be one of the most costly disappointments of his career.
And with the film already struggling to stay in theaters, Hollywood may be left debating how one of its biggest stars ended up at the center of such an extraordinary box-office collapse.
