Tom Cruise’s expensive new film Digger is facing losses of up to $200 million after attracting just $20 million at the worldwide box office during its opening weekend.
The dark political comedy earned approximately $8 million from 3,321 cinemas across the United States and Canada after opening on 2 October.
It added only $12 million from more than 70 international markets, despite Cruise traditionally being a major box-office attraction outside North America.
The disappointing figures left Digger in fifth place at the North American box office and sixth globally.
Budget reportedly rose to $180 million
Warner Bros reportedly maintains that Digger cost approximately $125 million to produce.
However, industry sources cited by Variety estimate that its budget increased to between $160 million and $180 million after production ran over schedule.
The studio is also believed to have spent approximately $100 million on marketing the film around the world.
Some reports place the total marketing bill even higher, meaning the studio and its financial partners may have committed close to $300 million to the project before cinema owners take their share of ticket sales.
Industry executives reportedly believe Digger needs to gross between $300 million and $350 million worldwide to break even from its theatrical release.
Given its weak opening and negative word of mouth, reaching that figure now appears highly unlikely.
Film could lose between $150m and $200m
Variety estimates that Digger could lose between $150 million and $200 million during its theatrical run.
Deadline separately calculated that the film was heading towards a loss of approximately $150 million.
Those estimates remain provisional because Digger is still showing in cinemas and will eventually generate additional income through digital rentals, streaming, television rights and home entertainment.
However, its opening weekend was so far below expectations that analysts do not believe those later revenue sources will be enough to prevent a substantial financial loss.
Cruise suffers rare box-office failure
The result represents one of the weakest openings of Cruise’s career and his poorest North American debut in almost two decades.
It is also his first major non-franchise role since American Made opened with $16.8 million in 2017.
Cruise has spent much of the past decade appearing in commercially successful action franchises, including Mission: Impossible and Top Gun.
Top Gun: Maverick became the biggest film of his career after earning nearly $1.5 billion worldwide in 2022.
Digger, by contrast, was expected to open with at least $40 million in North America to have a realistic chance of recovering its enormous costs.
Dark comedy failed to attract audiences
Directed by Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, Digger stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a powerful oil tycoon who attempts to present himself as humanity’s saviour after causing an environmental disaster.
The supporting cast includes Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy, Michael Stuhlbarg and John Goodman.
The film received divided-to-negative reviews, with critics questioning its tone, structure and political satire.
Audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore, suggesting weak word of mouth that could result in a steep decline during its second weekend.
Verity dominates weekend box office
Digger was easily beaten by Verity, the psychological thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson.
Verity opened with $32.6 million in North America and approximately $62.6 million worldwide against a reported $40 million production budget.
Resident Evil, Brad Pitt’s Heart of the Beast and Robert Pattinson’s Primetime also finished ahead of Digger at the domestic box office.
The failure adds to a difficult year for Warner Bros, which has already experienced disappointing results from several expensive releases.
Unless Digger shows an unexpected improvement over the coming weeks, it is positioned to become one of the biggest theatrical losses of 2026.
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