'Digger' flops at box office; Tom Cruise says "Movies Transcend," compares it to his hits
Digger bombed with critics and at the box office, but Tom Cruise isn’t giving up — and he thinks there’s still a case to be made.
Digger, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s satire that puts Tom Cruise in his first non‑action role in nearly a decade, casts him as Digger Rockwell — an oil tycoon whose Antarctic rig malfunction sets off ice sheets barreling toward Europe. As the movie ’s slow start made headlines, Cruise told the On Film With Kevin McCarthy podcast he’s thinking past opening weekend and aiming for longevity.
"They transcend… you just hope you can make a film that can last,"
He added that he wants to make something that can “translate and last and evolve.” To underscore the point, Cruise pointed to eras when films like Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July played in theaters for months, and even invoked Blade Runner — recalling that “everybody killed” it at first before it became a classic.
Box office picture
The numbers so far tell a tougher story. Iñárritu’s film opened to $8 million domestically and $20 million worldwide, and earned a C+ CinemaScore from opening‑night audiences — typically a sign of weak word of mouth and steeper second‑week drops.
- Domestic opening: $8 million
- Worldwide opening: $20 million
- Audience grade: C+ CinemaScore
- Projected worldwide total: expected to struggle to top $50 million
- Projected theatrical loss: $150–$200 million
Critics have also come down hard on the movie, and box office analysts say it’s now shaping up to be Cruise’s biggest commercial misfire in decades. Some filmmakers have pushed back on the pile‑on — Guillermo del Toro, for one, has labeled at least one harsh review “petty” — but for now, projections have Digger losing between $150 million and $200 million in theaters.