Final Warner Bros. Movie Pre-Merger Bombs With Tom Cruise's Lowest Global Debut In 19 Years

Published Oct 4, 2026, 5:50 PM EDT Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. Sign in to your ScreenRant account This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.Tom Cruise's Digger is in a deep box office hole after opening weekend. The new satirical dark comedy film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu features Cruise in the eponymous role of Digger Rockwell, an ultrarich oil tycoon whose company unleashes a global disaster that he has to fix. Due to its theatrical release date of October 2, it is the final Warner Bros. film to be released prior to the company's merger with Paramount, the combination of which will be known as Skydance moving forward. According to Warner Bros., Digger will finish its opening weekend with a box office total of $20 million worldwide, with $8 million domestic and $12 million international. This is Cruise's lowest global box office debut since 2007's Lions for Lambs at $10.3 million worldwide. A crucial difference, however, is that Lions for Lambs' budget was $35 million, whereas Digger's budget is reportedly between $160 and $180 million. Per the box office rule of thumb that a movie needs to gross two and a half times its budget to be considered profitable, Digger needs to make $400–450 million to break even. A $20 million global opening weekend makes that very unlikely to happen, especially since, due to a 51% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, good reviews and positive word of mouth are not poised to help make a difference in the coming weeks. Deadline reports that even if the film reaches a total of $50 million worldwide, it will lose $150 million. It is a disappointing end to a long era of theatrical success at Warner Bros. under the leadership of Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who Paramount CEO David Ellison is not keeping on as the companies merge together. Digger's lackluster box office also comes after Warner Bros. earned a box total of $4.3 billion in 2025, the company's best year since 2019, along with 11 Academy Award wins. Following the success of Cruise's 2022 legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which grossed $1.503 globally and reinvigorated the box office as it continued to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav wanted De Luca and Abdy to get Cruise under contract. After some financial analysis, De Luca and Abdy reportedly greenlit Digger with a $125 million production budget, the cost of which rose over time. More to come... Release Date October 2, 2026 Runtime 128 minutes Director Alejandro González Iñárritu Writers Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone Producers Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Michael Sharp, Tom Cruise Cast