Tom Cruise Thanks Cast and Crew as Digger Faces Box Office Struggles
Tom Cruise Thanks Cast and Crew as Digger Faces Disappointing Box Office Debut
Tom Cruise posted behind-the-scenes photographs on Saturday morning to express his appreciation to the cast and crew of Digger, a $125 million-budgeted satire directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu that is heading to around $8 million in a rough debut weekend in 3,300 North American theaters. The film, released Friday by Warner Bros., centers on an egotistical oil tycoon who causes a natural disaster.
DIGGER is officially in theaters and I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists,
Cruise posted on social media. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for your dedication, hard work and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we created.
Critical Reception and Audience Response to Warner Bros. Release
The ambitious project faces a challenging path forward after earning a C+ CinemaScore from audiences and holding a 51 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Chief film critic David Rooney dismissed the project as dead and buried
in his review for The Hollywood Reporter. The film features a cast that includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, and Sandra Hüller.
The dark comedy opted to skip the festival circuit entirely, relying instead on word of mouth and big-name buzz to draw audiences. This strategy represented Cruise’s first non-franchise film since the 2017 Barry Seal biopic American Made.
Digger Faces Huge Losses for Warner Bros
Variety projections indicate Digger may bring in between $12 million and $15 million domestically for its opening weekend, while needing to earn north of $300 million globally to break even after marketing costs. The film is poised to become one of the biggest box-office disasters of the year for Warner Bros., following a string of releases including The Bride!, Supergirl, The End of Oak Street, and Practical Magic 2.
For Cruise, the opening is likely to mark his lowest since the 2007 war drama Lions for Lambs debuted with $6.7 million from a smaller budget, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Meanwhile, Amazon MGM Studios’ Anne Hathaway-led thriller Verity, which adapts the Colleen Hoover novel, will open atop the domestic box office chart with about $33 million.
Cruise Plays Actor in Climate Disaster Play
The film features a narrative twist revealed about a third of the way through, shifting from what trailers advertised into a story about a play concerning a climate disaster. In this structural conceit, Cruise drops a Texan accent to play Curtis Markson, an actor in prosthetics participating in tech rehearsals in a cavernous theater.
During an onstage conversation following a Los Angeles screening earlier in the week, Cruise discussed his career trajectory. My hope is always that the films would do well enough that I would have that opportunity to do it again,
the actor said. People want to see real things. This career, we have to work to do it. It was never handed to any of us. I want you to know that.
Cruise will soon return to intellectual property-driven action fare as production revs up on Days of Thunder 2.