Hollywood Rallies Behind Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ as Guillermo Del Toro and Anne Hathaway Shrug off Its Box Office Collapse

Tom Cruise has built a career on high-risk, high-reward moviemaking, but ‘Digger’ has turned into the kind of gamble that keeps studio accountants up at night. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s dark satire stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a mid-21st-century billionaire whose oil drilling operation in Greenland may have unleashed a climate catastrophe that threatens to destroy Europe.

The numbers have been brutal. The film opened on October 2 with just $8 million in North America and $21 million globally, and with a production budget between $160 million and $180 million plus $100 million in marketing, Variety reported it would need around $350 million worldwide simply to break even.

Things have only gotten worse since opening weekend. TheWrap reported that ‘Digger’ is poised to lose a stunning $250 million even after post-theatrical revenue, with Skydance insiders not expecting it to pass $40 million worldwide.

That puts the film in the company of notorious money-losers like ‘John Carter’ and ‘The Lone Ranger’. It also landed a C+ CinemaScore and was even beaten at the Friday box office by Anne Hathaway’s ‘Verity’.

Yet as the bomb narrative took hold, some of the industry’s biggest names started speaking up. In the week since the disastrous opening, Anne Hathaway, Jane Fonda, Guillermo del Toro, Mandy Patinkin and Glen Powell all used social media to champion the movie.

Del Toro delivered the bluntest defense of all on X. Reposting a message that described ‘Digger’ as being made for the arts rather than the charts, the Oscar winner added his own expletive-laden endorsement, essentially telling the box office numbers where they could go.

Love the arts Fuck the charts

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) October 8, 2026

Hathaway, who was busy with her own hit, took to Letterboxd to give ‘Digger’ a perfect 10/10. She described it as brilliant, smart, trippy, aggressive, funny, and ambitious, and encouraged audiences to make time to see it and judge for themselves.

Jane Fonda focused on the leading man himself. Writing on Instagram, she praised the film for revealing another side of Cruise’s courage and encouraged both him and Iñárritu to keep being brave.

Mandy Patinkin was perhaps the most effusive of all, calling the movie an instant classic and one of the greatest films he has ever seen. He urged people not to walk but to run to theaters to catch it.

The support has even given rise to a fan movement online, with admirers of the film calling themselves the “Digger Hive.” Not everyone is convinced, though, as some online commenters suggested the praise amounted to friends doing favors for a struggling release.

Cruise himself had already addressed the issue before the box office results came in. On the ‘On Film With Kevin McCarthy’ podcast, released the same day the film opened, he explained that he doesn’t make movies for opening weekend and instead aims to create lasting pieces of cinema.

He also thanked the cast and crew on social media during the opening weekend, calling it an honor to make the film. The ensemble includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller and Jesse Plemons.

‘Digger’ marks Iñárritu’s first English-language movie since ‘The Revenant’, and the director first pitched the idea to Cruise about 7 years ago. Critics have been split on the result, but its famous defenders are betting that history will be kinder than the opening weekend.

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