Tom Cruise Suffers Brutal Box Office BOMB

Tom Cruise may be one of Hollywood’s most dependable movie stars, but his latest gamble is shaping up to be one of the biggest box-office disappointments of his career.

The 64-year-old actor’s new dark comedy “Digger” opened to an estimated $8 million in the United States and Canada over the weekend, a disastrous start for a movie that reportedly cost about $125 million to produce.

The weak debut is especially striking because “Digger” marks Cruise’s first major departure in years from the action-heavy roles that have made his “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun” movies global blockbusters.

Instead, Cruise teamed with Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu for a bizarre political and environmental satire that appears to have struggled to connect with mainstream moviegoers.

Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an enormously powerful oil tycoon desperately trying to convince the world he can save humanity from an ecological catastrophe he helped unleash. The actor reportedly takes on several different personas during the movie, relying heavily on prosthetics and physical transformation rather than the death-defying stunts audiences usually associate with him.

But the unusual approach did not translate into ticket sales.

Industry estimates put the movie’s domestic opening at just $8 million, with another roughly $12 million coming from international markets. That would give “Digger” an opening global haul of about $20 million against its hefty production budget, before accounting for millions more potentially spent on marketing and distribution. Variety

The opening is reportedly Cruise’s weakest for a wide theatrical release in nearly two decades, dating back to the 2007 political drama “Lions for Lambs.” Deadline

Making matters worse, “Digger” was easily overshadowed by “Verity,” the new psychological thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson. “Verity” opened with approximately $32 million domestically, roughly four times the amount earned by Cruise’s movie. Variety

Reviews have also been sharply divided.

As of Sunday, “Digger” held a 51% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, although audiences were considerably more positive, giving it a 71% verified audience score. Critics have praised Cruise’s willingness to take a creative risk, while others have criticized the movie as overlong, overly stylized and difficult to connect with emotionally. Rotten Tomatoes

That mixed reaction could make it difficult for the film to recover through word of mouth.

The movie runs two hours and nine minutes and carries an R rating for pervasive language. Its supporting cast includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Emma D’Arcy and Sophie Wilde. Rotten Tomatoes

Cruise nevertheless appears to be standing behind the project.

Ahead of the disappointing opening, he publicly praised the experience of making “Digger” and said he was proud of what the cast and filmmakers had created. The project was always considered a major creative swing for the actor, who has spent much of the past decade concentrating on massive action franchises. The Hollywood Reporter

“Digger” is also arriving at an extraordinary moment for Warner Bros.

The movie is expected to be the studio’s final theatrical release before Paramount’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery formally closes. The massive deal is expected to close Oct. 6, effectively ending Warner Bros.’ run as an independent Hollywood studio and beginning a dramatic restructuring of some of the entertainment industry’s best-known brands. The Wall Street Journal

That timing could make the movie’s performance even more closely scrutinized inside Hollywood.

Warner Bros. has spent heavily in recent years backing filmmaker-driven projects that do not necessarily belong to established franchises. Some have turned into unexpected successes, while others have struggled to justify blockbuster-sized budgets.

“Digger” now appears likely to fall into the latter category unless it experiences an unusually strong hold in the coming weeks.

For Cruise, the results also reinforce how difficult it can be for even Hollywood’s biggest stars to persuade audiences to show up for expensive original movies.

His recent successes have largely been tied to familiar properties. “Top Gun: Maverick” became a cultural phenomenon and earned nearly $1.5 billion worldwide, while the “Mission: Impossible” franchise has remained one of Hollywood’s most recognizable action brands.

“Digger” offered audiences something radically different.

So far, they do not appear to be buying it. The Hollywood Reporter

For your site, I’d use “Tom Cruise’s $125 Million ‘Digger’ Suffers Brutal Box Office Collapse” over the original headline. It is more clickable, immediately communicates the scale of the problem, and remains supported by the opening numbers.