Is Tom Cruise always a star and does he pull in audiences just by being himself, or has the success of recent years come to him because they were blockbusters? Digger seemed like the film that would settle the question once and for all, but it’s been confirmed to be so strange, so out of place and so uncomfortable for those who’ve already seen it that it’s likely that, far from being a hit, it’ll become one of the biggest flops of 2026.
Tom Cruise, down the hole
Digger has cost so much money that Warner will only make any money if it grosses more than $325-350 million. On its opening weekend, not even the lowest forecasts have reached a number that low: if analysts’ forecasts are right, it’ll open with just $12 million in the United States (behind the week’s other big release, Verity), making it Alejandro González Iñárritu’s second movie in a row to bomb.
And no, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a hit in the rest of the world or that it can take off afterward either: the first reviews have been terrible and it solidifies a terrible year for Warner, which has struggled to release films that cross $100 million at the box office. In fact, they’ve only turned a profit on Wuthering Heights, Mortal Kombat II and Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. And none of them has been exactly spectacular.
Ultimately, if this meager figure is ultimately confirmed, Warner will be at its lowest point and ready for the merger. This year Supergirl, The Bride!, Practical Magic 2 and The End of Oak Street have cost it about $260 million at the box office. But the worst is still to come if not even Tom Cruise turns things around.
