NEW YORK – Tom Cruise’s Digger has opened well below expectations at the North American box office, earning just $8 million in its debut weekend.
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the satirical black comedy opened across 3,300 North American theatres. Its opening is a major disappointment for Warner Bros., particularly given the film’s reported production cost of at least $125 million.
Some reports have suggested that the budget increased to around $180 million, although a studio representative has disputed that figure.
The film had been expected to open between $12 million and $15 million in North America. Its $8 million debut therefore fell below even those modest projections.
Digger also earned approximately $12 million internationally, according to the available figures.
Weak opening for Tom Cruise
The opening marks one of the weakest starts of Cruise’s career. The film’s North American debut was below the $6.7 million opening of 2007’s Lions for Lambs when adjusted for the much smaller budget of that film.
Digger was positioned as a more unconventional project for Cruise. In the film, he plays a balding and overweight oil tycoon whose actions contribute to a natural disaster.
The film has also struggled with audiences and critics. It received a C+ CinemaScore, one of the lower audience grades of Cruise’s career. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score stood at 51 per cent, while reviews remained divided.
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‘Verity’ leads box office
While Digger struggled, Amazon MGM’s Verity dominated the North American box office. The thriller, based on Colleen Hoover’s novel, earned $32.6 million from 3,510 locations in its opening weekend.
Starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, Verity was made on a reported $40 million budget.
The audience for the film was heavily female, with women accounting for 78 per cent of its opening-weekend audience. Around 38 per cent of viewers were between 25 and 34 years old.
Despite its strong commercial debut, Verity also received a C+ CinemaScore. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score stood at 34 per cent.
Strong overall weekend for cinemas
Despite the weak performance of Digger, the overall North American box office remained strong.
The weekend was expected to generate around $100 million domestically. That would represent an increase of about 16 per cent compared with the same weekend in 2025.
The 2026 domestic box office was also projected to reach approximately $7.95 billion, marking a 19 per cent increase from the same point last year.
Sony’s Resident Evil remained in second place during its third weekend, adding $12.5 million to take its domestic total to around $124.8 million.
Paramount’s Heart of the Beast earned another $11 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to approximately $38.3 million. A24’s Primetime added $8 million in its second weekend and reached roughly $34 million domestically.
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‘Digger’ marks unusual turn for Cruise
Digger represents a departure from the action-heavy films that have become closely associated with Cruise.
The actor is expected to return to that territory with Days of Thunder 2, which is scheduled to enter production.
Cruise has nevertheless defended Digger. He said on social media that he remained proud of what the filmmakers had created.
The film’s poor opening comes at an important moment for Warner Bros. The studio is expected to complete its $111 billion merger with Paramount Skydance on October 6.
‘Avengers: Endgame’ returns to No. 1
Elsewhere, Disney’s Avengers: Endgame returned to the top spot on the all-time global box office chart.
The Marvel film reclaimed the position following its Avengers: Endgame: Encore rerelease, which is intended to build momentum ahead of Avengers: Doomsday.
Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day also crossed the $2.5 billion mark globally. The Tom Holland-led film remained third on the all-time worldwide box office chart.
The worldwide box office total for the film reached approximately $2.506 billion, while films featuring Peter Parker have collectively passed $17.5 billion.
Next weekend will see the release of Jessica Chastain’s Other Mommy and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning.
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Key points:
- Tom Cruise’s Digger opened to $8 million from 3,300 North American cinemas.
- The film had a reported production budget of $125 million, with some reports putting the cost closer to $180 million.
- Digger earned another $12 million internationally during its opening weekend.
- Amazon MGM’s Verity topped the North American box office with $32.6 million.
- Digger received a C+ CinemaScore, while its Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score stood at 51 per cent.
- The film is expected to become a significant financial setback for Warner Bros.
