Tom Cruise and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s high-risk satirical film Digger opened to a dismal $3.4 million at the domestic box office on Friday, tracking well below studio projections and landing far behind Amazon MGM Studios’ psycho-thriller Verity during its early October 2026 release.
The R-rated black comedy arrived in 3,321 North American theaters courtesy of Warner Bros., generating a meager Friday haul that included Thursday previews. Industry trackers initially anticipated an opening weekend between $12 million and $15 million, but updated projections indicate the film will struggle to cross $8 million domestically by Sunday. For a project greenlit with a $125 million production budget that ultimately ballooned to between $160 million and $180 million due to a protracted production schedule, the launch marks a devastating financial setback.
Trade analysts noted that the project is headed for the lowest opening weekend for Cruise since the 2007 war drama Lions for Lambs, which debuted with $6.7 million against a much smaller budget.
Box Office Standing and Studio Transitions
The commercial stumble coincides with a monumental corporate shift at Warner Bros. As Paramount takes ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery, Digger stands as the final film in the studio’s 103-year history operating as a standalone entity. Studio film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are exiting following the transition, with Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein stepping in to helm the division.
Siphoned-off duds earlier in the year included Maggie Gyllenhaal’s punk rock project The Bride! and DC’s comic book adaptation Supergirl.
Amid the studio turbulence, Amazon MGM Studios seized the weekend crown. Director Michael Showalter’s psycho-thriller Verity—an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett—collected $15.1 million on Friday across 3,510 North American locations. The film is pacing toward an estimated $33.6 million domestic weekend win, earning a disappointing C+ CinemaScore from audiences for the story of struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh taking a job as a ghostwriter for acclaimed author Verity Crawford.
Other weekend contenders included Sony’s zombie horror film Resident Evil, which brought in $3.62 million on Friday on its way to a $12 million weekend, bringing its domestic total to $124.395 million despite a 60% second weekend drop. Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures’ survival thriller The Heart of the Beast followed Digger with $3.15 million on Friday, pushing its cumulative gross to $38.39 million. Lance Oppenheim’s fact-based thriller Primetime, chronicling Chris Hansen’s time hosting Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator, headed to $8 million in its sophomore frame to reach a domestic total of roughly $34 million.
Metafictional Premise and Polarized Reviews
Directed by five-time Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu—who previously won consecutive Best Director Oscars for Birdman in 2015 and The Revenant in 2016—Digger casts Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an aging, potbellied Texas oil tycoon with thinning hair who ignores warning signs at a Greenland oil rig. The resulting disaster triggers a massive chunk of ice to break loose and send catastrophic tsunamis toward Europe.
The narrative contains an elaborate metatextual twist. The project doubles as a satire of contemporary satires, exploring the comforting distance audiences find in lampooning wealthy industrialists.
Critics remain sharply divided. The film holds a Rotten Tomatoes critics score around 50 percent and earned a C+ grade on CinemaScore from opening audiences.
I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for your dedication, hard work, and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we created.
Tom Cruise, Star
Marketing Pivots and Future Outlook
Faced with mounting negative buzz and divided word-of-mouth, Warner Bros. pivoted its promotional strategy. The studio leaned directly into the controversy, running advertisements featuring polarized critic quotes ranging from insufferable
to magnificent
while urging moviegoers to Decide for Yourself.
Demographic data indicates the project skewed heavily toward younger and male viewers, with 60 percent of ticket buyers falling between ages 18 and 34, and more than 70 percent of the audience identifying as male. Geographically, coastal markets led ticket sales, with AMC Lincoln Square registering the highest gross for the title.
Despite the commercial disappointment, industry observers emphasize that the project was consciously designed as an uncompromising auteur experiment rather than a standard franchise vehicle. As box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian observed regarding audience expectations, ticket-buyers must evaluate the project based on its distinct artistic ambitions rather than standard commercial benchmarks.
