The R-rated dark comedy made just $8 million domestically and $12 million overseas in its opening weekend, Cruise's weakest domestic debut in two decades.
Tom Cruise has had some rough openings before. This one might be the roughest in twenty years.
Digger, the R-rated dark comedy starring Cruise, pulled in just $8 million domestically over its three-day opening weekend, according to Koimoi's box office report. It barely cracked the domestic top five. Overseas wasn't much kinder, with the film adding $12 million across 73 international markets. Put the two together and you get a worldwide opening of $20.6 million, per Box Office Mojo figures cited by the trade.
For context, that's the kind of number a mid-budget indie hopes to clear. Digger is not a mid-budget indie.
The film was greenlit at $125 million, Koimoi reported, citing Deadline. But an extended shoot pushed the actual spend to around $160 million. That gap between what was promised and what got spent is usually where studio nightmares begin, and this one is no exception. Industry estimates now put Warner Bros' eventual loss at roughly $148 million, which would make Digger one of the costliest flops in the studio's history, and reportedly a bigger bath than Marvel's The Marvels took last year.
The premise, going by Koimoi's description, follows the most powerful man in the world racing to prove he can save humanity from a disaster he caused himself. Make of that what you will given how the film has landed with critics and audiences since its September 25 release. Social media has not been gentle. Reactions ranging from "sounds like something an AI would make" to comparisons with Birdman have been doing the rounds, alongside pointed jokes about Digger possibly being this generation's answer to WTF cinema, minus the cult affection.
Whether Digger finds its footing in the weeks ahead is an open question. Films with starry casts and bruising reviews sometimes stabilise once the opening-weekend noise dies down, especially overseas where marketing can lean harder on the star rather than the premise. But a $160 million budget leaves very little room for a slow-burn recovery. Koimoi's report notes industry estimates suggesting the film may not even cross the $100 million mark worldwide, let alone approach break-even.
Warner Bros hasn't issued a separate statement on the numbers beyond what's circulating through trade estimates, and Koimoi itself flags that these figures haven't been independently verified. Still, the gap between Digger's budget and its opening haul is wide enough that even generous rounding doesn't close it.
The next checkpoint is simple: how steep is the drop in weekend two, and does Warner Bros say anything official about the number everyone's already talking about.
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