Tom Cruise and Iñárritu’s Digger falls short of studio projections
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s satirical film Digger, starring Tom Cruise as an eccentric Texas oil tycoon, grossed between $7.5 and $8 million in its opening weekend across 3,321 North American theaters in October 2026, falling well short of studio projections and earning a C+ CinemaScore from audiences.
Warner Bros Faces Losses as Production Costs Rise
The financial shortfall leaves Warner Bros. facing steep losses as the film struggles domestically and internationally. While studio officials cite an official production budget of $125 million, industry tracking from Deadline and Variety places the actual cost between $160 and $180 million following multiple production delays and filming complications. Those figures exclude an estimated $100 million in launch expenses.
Industry standard multipliers suggest a film must earn roughly 2.5 times its production budget to account for marketing costs and the split retained by theater exhibitors, who keep something less than 50% of ticket sales. Under that formula, Digger required a global haul between 300 and 450 million to not give a loss. Instead, the film collected just $3.4 million through Thursday previews and Friday screenings in the United States, alongside soft international returns. In Argentina, the film debuted in fifth place with only 5,134 tickets sold across 147 screens.
The opening ranks as Tom Cruise’s worst debut since Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs in 2007, which brought in $6.7 million against a $35 million budget. Financial analysts note that the picture needed a $40 million opening weekend simply to project its profitability.
Critics and Audiences Polarize over Digger Rockwell Story
The box office struggles arrived alongside deeply polarized reviews from critics and audiences. Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 51% favorable rating for the project, while Metacritic logged an average score of 45 out of 100. Praise came from select commentators, including filmmaker and critic Jim Hemphill writing for IndieWire, who labeled the picture the best of the year, while a reviewer for The Guardian called it the most disappointing.
The narrative follows Digger Rockwell, a wealthy oil magnate whose corporate decisions trigger a global ecological disaster involving a calving glacier. Tom Cruise adopted extensive prosthetic makeup to portray the character, appearing in one sequence in his underwear as a visual callback to Risky Business.
Before the release, rumors circulated on social media misidentifying the project as a musical, a claim debunked by figures including Guillermo del Toro. The film did not participate in major international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, or Toronto, opting instead for premieres in London, Mexico City, and Los Angeles.
Studio Leadership Transitions
The commercial performance coincides with executive turnover at Warner Bros. Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are departing following decisions made by David Ellison, the new owner of the merger with Paramount.
The next test for the film’s financial trajectory arrives as second-week theater counts adjust and international rollout figures update across global territories.