Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, shot in VistaVision, and a rough first weekend. Is it a flop or a cult classic in the making?
When you hear “Tom Cruise,” you expect a spectacle: a year of hype, a death-defying stunt, a motorcycle flying off a cliff. For decades, Cruise has been the star who keeps blockbusters alive in cinemas.
So the numbers from the first weekend of October were a shock. His new film, Digger, opened on October 2, 2026, and barely made a ripple.
Here’s the plot, the box office damage, why it may have happened, and whether you should still buy a ticket.
Image Source: IMBD
What Exactly Is Digger?
Forget Top Gun 3 and forget Mission: Impossible. Digger is a dark satirical comedy directed by two-time Best Director Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant). Warner Bros. is billing it as “a comedy of catastrophic proportions,” according to The Northeast Times.
Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a wealthy oil tycoon whose drilling goes disastrously wrong. Instead of owning up, he sets out to convince the world that he is humanity’s savior. Trailers show Cruise almost unrecognizable, with a prosthetic belly, thinning combover, and thick Southern drawl.
The supporting cast is stacked: Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, Iñárritu’s longtime collaborator, shot it.
Image Source: IMBD
The Numbers: A Rough Opening
Let’s not sugarcoat it. Per Khaleej Times, here is how opening weekend went:
- $8 million in the US and Canada, placing fifth
- $12 million internationally
- About $20 million worldwide
That is Cruise’s weakest opening since Lions for Lambs ($6.7 million) in 2007, and it came against a production budget reported at around $125 million, according to Dark HorizSo What Went Wrong?
Critics and audiences are split. Here are our theories. These are our opinions, not confirmed facts.
1. A very different kind of Tom Cruise movie. Audiences usually buy a Cruise ticket for the stunts. Digger swaps the stunts for a satire about ego, and the biggest risk in the story is a reputation. The film is also his first lead role outside the Top Gun and Mission: Impossible franchises since American Made (2017), per The Northeast Times.
2. A hard film to sell in 30 seconds. Satire is difficult to squeeze into a trailer. The studio did run a campaign: a teaser in June, a full trailer in July, a final trailer about three weeks before release, and CinemaCon footage back in April. But the pitch of “a movie star disappears into a comic villain” may not have reached casual viewers who just wanted the usual Cruise action.
3. Mixed reviews and word of mouth. With a middling critics’ score and a C+ from audiences, there was little momentum to carry the film into its second weekend.
Image Source: TOM CRUISE as Rockwell in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ “DIGGER,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by Seoju Park. © 2026 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Part Everyone Agrees On: It Looks Incredible
Even skeptics tend to praise the visuals. Digger was shot on 35mm VistaVision, a high-resolution format developed in 1954 that has seen a revival recently, according to Looper. Cruise said the team tested it against 65mm before choosing, in an interview with The Playlist.ons.
The weekend winner was the Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity, which was tracking near $33 million, per JoBlo. The same report notes Digger earned a CinemaScore of C+. The Daily Beast reports a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score, Cruise’s lowest in nearly a decade, and some outlets project heavy losses for the studio.
The Gazetoria Verdict
Is Digger a flop? On the numbers, yes. Is it worth watching? That depends on what you want from a night out.
If you want the Tom Cruise of motorcycles and helicopters, this isn’t it. But if you’re curious about a big-budget, strange, star-driven satire from an Oscar-winning director, a film that studios rarely make anymore, it’s worth judging for yourself. Cruise himself has said he’s proud of what the team created.
A weak opening doesn’t decide whether a film is good. It only decides how many people showed up to find out. If you go, see it on the biggest screen you can find.
Join Our Community
Did you see any marketing for Digger? Should Cruise stick to action, or do you want more weird, risky roles like this one? Drop a comment below, share this article with your movie buddy, and follow Gazetoria for more pop culture coverage.
Sources
- Khaleej Times: Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ marks his worst box office opening in nearly 20 years
- JoBlo: Box Office Update, Digger marks Tom Cruise’s lowest opening in 19 years
- The Daily Beast: Tom Cruise tries to dig out of epic box office humiliation
- Gulf News: Tom Cruise isn’t backing down on Digger despite weak box office start
- The Northeast Times: Tom Cruise disappears into oil tycoon role in Iñárritu’s ‘Digger’
- Dark Horizons: Final Trailer, Tom Cruise Is “Digger”
- Looper: Digger Trailer, Tom Cruise Saves The World From Himself
- The Playlist: Tom Cruise talks “discovering” Digger on set and the VistaVision look
- TheWrap: ‘Digger’ First Look
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Disclaimer: This article was drafted with the assistance of AI to help organize and rephrase information from the sources above. It was reviewed and edited by a human editor before publication for accuracy and tone.
