Warner Bros is staring at an estimated $250 million loss on Digger as the film's $8 million opening sends audiences scrambling for old Cruise titles on streaming.
Eight million dollars. That's what Digger made in its opening weekend, a number nobody at Warner Bros was hoping to see attached to a wide Tom Cruise release. According to a new estimate cited by Collider, the studio could end up losing roughly $250 million on the film, which would make it the biggest bomb of Cruise's career by some distance.
That's not a small claim. Cruise has had underperformers before, but nothing on this scale, especially not for a movie reportedly built to showcase him as a serious actor and maybe finally land him that Oscar nomination that's eluded him for decades.
The reviews tell their own confused story. Digger currently sits at 51% on Rotten Tomatoes' critics' side, and it pulled a C+ from CinemaScore audiences polled on opening night, a grade that suggests people walked out unsure what they'd just watched rather than furious about it. Online, the reaction has split just as hard. Some viewers are calling it a trippy, ambitious swing that could've kicked off a whole psychological-thriller franchise if it had connected. Others just didn't show up.
And that's really the story here. It's not that Digger is universally hated. It's that almost nobody bought a ticket.
The irony on streaming
While Digger struggles in theaters, Cruise fans have gone looking for him elsewhere, and FlixPatrol's charts make for a strange read this week. Top Gun: Maverick, still sitting at a near-perfect 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, is back at number one on the global Paramount+ chart. That's not surprising. Maverick is Cruise's biggest hit ever, a $1.5 billion global grosser, and comfort viewing of the highest order.
What is surprising is who's keeping it company. Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's final film and a movie that infamously scored a D- from CinemaScore audiences back in 1999, has climbed onto the global HBO Max leaderboard. It made over $160 million worldwide off a $65 million budget, and it's aged into something closer to respected than reviled. Domestically, Prime Video's chart has gone full Jack Reacher, with both Cruise's 2012 original and its 2016 sequel drawing renewed interest despite mixed reviews from Lee Child loyalists at the time.
There's a pointed comparison being made in trade coverage here. Digger's $8 million opening is being measured against Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, Cruise's 1999 ensemble drama that made $48 million globally and is now considered one of his finest performances. The suggestion, unmissable in how it's being framed, is that Digger might follow the same arc: a theatrical disappointment that gets rediscovered and reassessed years down the line as a cult favorite.
For now though, Warner Bros has to deal with the present. Digger is still in theaters, bleeding money by the week, while the audience that was supposed to show up for it stays home and streams the Cruise films they already trust. Whether that $250 million estimate holds up once final numbers come in is the next thing worth watching.
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