Warner Bros.’ Box Office Year Is Turning Into a Disaster, Led by ‘Digger’ and ‘Supergirl’

Warner Bros. went into the year riding high. Under film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, the studio had a celebrated 2025, with ‘Sinners’ grossing $327 million and winning 4 Oscars, and ‘One Battle After Another’ taking home 6 Oscars, including Best Picture.

The landscape has changed dramatically since then. Warner Bros. Discovery merged with Paramount Skydance in October, creating a combined company called Skydance under David Ellison. De Luca and Abdy were dismissed, and Paramount’s Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein now oversee film output for both studios.

The new owners have inherited a painful year at the box office. According to box office tracker Global Box Office, Warner Bros. is losing more than $800 million in 2026, a figure that echoes a recent Page Six report but has not been confirmed by the studio.

Two films stand out as the year’s biggest bombs. The tracker estimates a loss of more than $250 million on Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ and around $150 million on the DC Studios film ‘Supergirl’.

Those numbers vary depending on who is counting, but every estimate points to serious damage for the studio. ‘Digger’, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, cast Cruise as a wealthy oil magnate whose wells trigger a global environmental catastrophe. The climate satire featured a nearly unrecognizable Cruise, transformed with heavy prosthetics into a paunchy, balding billionaire.

WARNER BROS is losing over $800M this year, including the two biggest bombs of the year: DIGGER ($250M+ loss) and SUPERGIRL ($150M loss). https://t.co/LzsvJgdVOK

— Global Box Office (@GlobalBoxOffice) October 29, 2026

The film opened to just $8 million domestically and $21 million worldwide, and Skydance insiders reportedly don’t expect it to pass $40 million globally. TheWrap reported a projected loss of about $250 million, with one insider describing the film as a shocking failure.

Costs piled up behind the scenes. Insiders put the budget between $163 million and $173 million, including about $25 million tied to Cruise’s delay in finishing ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’, plus roughly $100 million in marketing. Because Warner Bros. fully financed the film, the studio absorbs the entire loss.

Tom Cruise stars in the official trailer for #Digger. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new film is in theaters on October 2. https://t.co/PGPhedP6Zi

— Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 (@RottenTomatoes) July 13, 2026

‘Supergirl’ was supposed to be a key piece of the DCU. Instead, it opened to $37 million and suffered a steep drop of nearly 77% in its second weekend, one of the worst on record for a wide release.

Estimates of the damage vary widely. Variety projected a loss of around $100 million; other reports ranged from $80 million to $120 million, and analyst Dan Murrell calculated a theatrical-only shortfall of more than $244 million based on a reported budget of about $175 million and roughly $120 million in marketing.

The film’s performance has raised questions about the direction of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC slate, even as ‘Clayface’ recently opened at No. 1. ‘Digger’ and ‘Supergirl’ weren’t the only problems. ‘The Bride!’ earned just $24 million worldwide against a $90 million budget, while ‘Practical Magic 2’ and ‘The End of Oak Street’ are each estimated to have lost between $25 million and $40 million.

The final trailer for ‘SUPERGIRL’ has been released. • Tickets on sale now • In theaters on June 26 https://t.co/hiTkG52C3T

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) June 3, 2026

According to Variety, no Warner Bros. release crossed $100 million domestically this year, and the studio’s box office share fell from 21% last year to about 6%. The new leadership is now under pressure to rebuild. Ellison has signaled a stronger focus on profitability, and the studio is counting on ‘Dune: Part Three’, opening December 18, as a possible year-end blockbuster.

Upcoming releases including ‘Man of Tomorrow’, ‘Godzilla x Kong: Supernova’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’ will face close scrutiny. After such a rough year, the next slate may decide whether Warner Bros. can return to the form that made 2025 so successful.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!