Digger’s apocalyptic box office bomb takes hammer to Tom Cruise’s rebirth

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video It would seem audiences are not digging Digger. Tom Cruise’s latest movie, from Birdman and The Revenant filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu, opened with around $8million in the US this weekend. It marks Cruise’s lowest box-office opening in nearly 20 years, and with the film carrying a hefty budget reportedly in the range of $140-180million, Digger is categorically a bomb. It comes after the movie proved divisive with critics, rocking a 51% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with our own Tom Percival awarding the film just two stars for Metro. Audiences have categorically rejected this new shift from Cruise, and it could put him off from making more big creative swings in the future, which is a damn shame. What lessons will Cruise take from Digger’s reception? (Pictures: Warner Bros. Pictures via AP) Cruise has largely kept his movie star credentials bright with action-oriented franchise movies of late, with the likes of the Mission: Impossible entries and the billion-dollar hit that was Top Gun: Maverick. Audiences are much more accustomed to seeing Cruise dangle from an aeroplane than they are to seeing him covered in prosthetics and giving himself so fully to a filmmaker’s vision. As much as I love seeing Tom run and witnessing what new death-defying spectacle he’s been cooking up, I was excited for Digger, as it seemed to mark a shift for the action man. Digger is the lowest-opening movie for Cruise since 2007’s Lions For Lambs (Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures/AP) At 64 years of age, it signified him acknowledging that he can’t keep doing the action hero thing forever. Time catches up with us all, even Tom Cruise. Digger, for all its flaws (and I must say it’s a film I quite like), is him giving his all to a performance in a way that requires him to flex more of the character actor muscles that he used to deploy earlier in his career with the likes of Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia. His stepping back into that mould felt new, fresh, and daring in a way he hasn’t been in a long time, at least when it comes to his approach to his craft of acting. He is an exciting performer to watch, as you know that more often than not you’re going to see a performance from an individual giving his all for the sake of the movie. Biggest box office bombs in history 1. Lolita (1997) – $62m budget, $1.1m worldwide gross 2. Heaven’s Gate (1980) – $44m budget, $3.5m gross 3. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) – $18.4m budget, $4.8m gross 4. Inchon (1981) – $46m budget, $5.2m gross 5. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) – $100m budget, $7.1m gross 6. Gigli (2003) – $75.6m budget, $7.3m gross 7. Monkeybone (2001) – $75m budget, $7.6m gross 8. Dudley Do-Right (1999) – $70m budget, $10m gross 9. Town & Country (2001) – $90m budget, $10.4m gross 10. The Promise (2016) – $90m budget, $10.6m gross *based on the highest financial loss over its full distribution cycle Digger marks a significant shift in Cruise’s career trajectory (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire) Digger: Key details Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu Writers Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, Sabina Berman, story by Iñárritu, Berman and Jez Butterworth Cast Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons Age rating 15 Runtime 2 hours and 9 minutes Release date In UK cinemas from October 3, 2026 Digger is him channelling that energy into something that felt volatile and unexpected. The devisiveness of the movie makes it feel even more exciting as art sparking conversation is surely what we all want from our movies. But the film coming in so far below expectations at the box office might signal to Cruise the businessman that this is not the right course for his career. His next movie has already been announced, and he’s going back to seemingly safer territory with the legacy sequel Days of Thunder 2, co-starring Anne Hathaway. He will then more than likely move on to the in-development Top Gun 3 shortly after. Returning to those more stable properties might help bolster his confidence again after the Digger slump, and mean he feels he has the cache to try something like it again. There’s also still a narrative where Digger continues to be a player in the awards season and nabs him an Oscar nomination, something which will surely be deemed a far greater mark of success than the box-office takings. But should Digger simply be buried across the board, one can’t help but think Cruise will decide to play it much safer in the latter stage of his career. Which I think will rob us of a much more interesting and rewarding chapter in the leading man’s storied career. Digger is out in cinemas now. Arrow MORE: Strictly Come Dancing has miraculously fixed its Johannes Radebe problem Arrow MORE: The next Celebrity Traitors murder is a done deal – and I’m gutted Arrow MORE: Andy Burnham writes for Metro: ‘How I’ll put power back in people’s hands’ Switched On Get plugged into the week’s must-watch shows, unmissable moments, and expert reviews with Metro TV Editor Sabrina Barr.