Tom Cruise's most ambitious bid for awards glory appears to have gone badly off the rails. With the review embargo on 'Digger' lifting on Wednesday, the Alejandro González Iñárritu satire has been torn apart by the country's top critics — and its opening-weekend projections have sunk to a level usually reserved for small specialty releases.
Boxoffice Pro analyst Daniel Loria now estimates the film will open between $8 million and $12 million this weekend, a number that would place it around fifth at the domestic box office. That is a steep fall from earlier tracking that had suggested a $30 million debut, then $20 million. For a production reported to have cost at least $135 million — with some industry sources putting the true figure as high as $180 million after overruns — those numbers spell serious trouble.
A brutal critical reception
The reviews were withering. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney described watching the film as enduring "excruciating weariness" with "another eardrum-shattering hour left to endure." The New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski handed it zero stars, something he had not done since 'The Bride' — another Warner Bros. release. The Boston Globe went further still, calling it the worst film of Cruise's career and giving it a zero as well. The film sits at 53 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest score for any Cruise film this decade.
An Oscar dream derailed
'Digger', in which Cruise plays billionaire oil baron Digger Rockwell trying to clean up an ecological disaster of his own making, had once been positioned as the vehicle that might finally win the actor a competitive Oscar. Awards pundits are now quietly removing it from their prediction lists. Warner Bros. has responded by leaning into the bad press, rushing out a social media promo urging audiences to "decide for yourself."
A symbolic farewell for Warner Bros.
The stakes extend beyond Cruise. The film arrives during a dismal year for Warner Bros., following flops like 'Supergirl' and 'The Bride!', and is expected to be the studio's final release as a standalone company before the Paramount merger closes. Loria cautions against blaming Cruise himself, noting the film is closer in spirit to Iñárritu's $18 million 'Birdman' than to a 'Top Gun'-style tentpole — but that, he says, is precisely the problem with its budget. The film opens in theatres on October 2.
Sources:
- Tom Cruise's disastrous 'Digger' could make as little as $8M to $12M in terrible opening weekend
- Tom Cruise's Digger Officially Debuts With His Lowest Score of This Decade
- Tom Cruise's Oscars bid Digger flops amid scathing reviews
Boxoffice Pro analyst Daniel Loria now estimates the film will open between $8 million and $12 million this weekend, a number that would place it around fifth at the domestic box office. That is a steep fall from earlier tracking that had suggested a $30 million debut, then $20 million. For a production reported to have cost at least $135 million — with some industry sources putting the true figure as high as $180 million after overruns — those numbers spell serious trouble.
A brutal critical reception
The reviews were withering. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney described watching the film as enduring "excruciating weariness" with "another eardrum-shattering hour left to endure." The New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski handed it zero stars, something he had not done since 'The Bride' — another Warner Bros. release. The Boston Globe went further still, calling it the worst film of Cruise's career and giving it a zero as well. The film sits at 53 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest score for any Cruise film this decade.
An Oscar dream derailed
'Digger', in which Cruise plays billionaire oil baron Digger Rockwell trying to clean up an ecological disaster of his own making, had once been positioned as the vehicle that might finally win the actor a competitive Oscar. Awards pundits are now quietly removing it from their prediction lists. Warner Bros. has responded by leaning into the bad press, rushing out a social media promo urging audiences to "decide for yourself."
A symbolic farewell for Warner Bros.
The stakes extend beyond Cruise. The film arrives during a dismal year for Warner Bros., following flops like 'Supergirl' and 'The Bride!', and is expected to be the studio's final release as a standalone company before the Paramount merger closes. Loria cautions against blaming Cruise himself, noting the film is closer in spirit to Iñárritu's $18 million 'Birdman' than to a 'Top Gun'-style tentpole — but that, he says, is precisely the problem with its budget. The film opens in theatres on October 2.
Sources:
- Tom Cruise's disastrous 'Digger' could make as little as $8M to $12M in terrible opening weekend
- Tom Cruise's Digger Officially Debuts With His Lowest Score of This Decade
- Tom Cruise's Oscars bid Digger flops amid scathing reviews
