‘Digger’ Box Office Sinks as Tom Cruise Heads for a Brutal Opening Weekend

Few movie stars can still guarantee a big opening, and Tom Cruise has long been one of the rare exceptions. That reputation is now being tested by ‘Digger’, a bold, polarizing black comedy that looks to be a tough sell for his usual audience, and the film’s box office start is shaping up to be even rougher than expected.

The film reunites Cruise with Warner Bros. for the first time since ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and marks Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s first English-language feature since ‘The Revenant’. It also carries a hefty price tag: it was greenlit at $125 million, but reports put the final cost at $160 million to $180 million after production ran over schedule.

Now the early numbers are rolling in, and they aren’t pretty. After earning $1.2 million from Thursday previews, the film looks to have taken in around $2 million on Friday, which would bring its opening day to roughly $3.25 million and put it on track for a weekend of about $7 million.

That figure lands well below even the gloomiest studio expectations. Box Office Pro’s long-range forecast originally pointed to a $20 million to $30 million debut, while Warner Bros. was projecting $12 million to $15 million heading into the weekend.

Warning signs appeared well before Friday. According to theatrical sources who spoke to TheWrap, presales for the film’s opening day were tracking at roughly half of what ‘One Battle After Another’ had earned at the same point, and that film opened to $22 million last year.

JoBlo had already warned that a debut of around $11 million would be Cruise’s weakest opening since ‘Lions for Lambs’ in 2007. A $7 million weekend would fall short of even that mark, while Anne Hathaway’s ‘Verity’, opening the same weekend, is widely expected to take the top spot.

Looks like ~$2M FRI for #Digger, giving it ~$3.25M opening day. Weekend around $7M. https://t.co/Huc8M6iBME

— ਜਤਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ (@Itsjat32) October 3, 2026

Part of the problem is the film itself. Cruise, nearly unrecognizable under prosthetics, plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon whose drilling in Greenland knocks an ice shelf loose from a glacier and sets off a global disaster.

The supporting cast is stacked, with Riz Ahmed as Ganesh, a scientist who tries in vain to warn Digger and the President, played by John Goodman. Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde and Emma D’Arcy round out the ensemble.

Reviews have been sharply divided. The film debuted at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes when the embargo lifted, and the site’s critics’ consensus calls it a bold swing that misses about as often as it connects.

A new trailer for ‘DIGGER’ has been released.

In theaters October 2. pic.twitter.com/kTEeFZI14E

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 9, 2026

Even the more positive takes come with caveats. Awards Radar described it as a fascinating misfire that’s still worth seeing, praising Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography and Dennis Gassner’s production design while noting that the pacing goes slack.

Several critics also predicted a rough reception from general audiences. One early reaction expected a disastrous CinemaScore, and Awards Radar said it wouldn’t be surprised if the film received an F.

The timing makes the stumble sting even more. ‘Digger’ is Warner Bros.’ final release as a standalone studio, as the 103-year-old company sits on the verge of Paramount ownership.

The film also bumped ‘The Odyssey’ from IMAX 70mm screens this weekend since it was shot on 65mm VistaVision, a move JoBlo predicted would frustrate fans, with ‘The Odyssey’ still selling out. With a soft debut, that premium-screen gamble now looks especially costly.

Warner Bros. was hoping Cruise’s lead performance would give the film legs through awards season, and many critics still see it as a contender for his work and the production design. But with BroBible noting it could become the biggest box office bomb of the year, ‘Digger’ now needs remarkable word of mouth to dig itself out of this hole.

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