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AMERICANALMANAC (Ken Jacobs) - Cruise's 'Digger' stumbles with an $8 million opening weekend Mon Oct 5 18:30:04 2026

Tom Cruise's prestige drama "Digger" opened to just $8 million in North America and landed in fifth place, a rough start for a costly Oscar-season bet. Studio estimates released Sunday put the Warner Bros. release far behind the weekend leader, according to USA TODAY. Rentrak's figures showed the film grossing $8 million across North American […] The post Cruise's 'Digger' stumbles with an $8 million opening weekend appeared first on American Almanac .

Tom Cruise's prestige drama "Digger" opened to just $8 million in North America and landed in fifth place, a rough start for a costly Oscar-season bet. Studio estimates released Sunday put the Warner Bros. release far behind the weekend leader, according to USA TODAY . Rentrak's figures showed the film grossing $8 million across North American theaters over its debut weekend. That total ranked "Digger" No. 5. It is a steep drop for an A-list star whose name still fills seats when the movie matches what fans expect. Cruise plays aging oil tycoon Digger Rockwell for director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the filmmaker behind "Birdman" and "The Revenant." The project marks Cruise's first film outside the action lane in nearly a decade, and his first non-action-blockbuster since 2017's "American Made." Big star, big budget, soft result The Hollywood Reporter has pegged the budget at $125 million. Variety estimated a final cost between $160 million and $180 million. Warner Bros. disputes the higher figure. Either number makes an $8 million domestic open look thin. Hollywood still greenlights expensive adult dramas and hopes prestige plus a megastar will carry opening weekend. Paying customers gave a clear answer this time. Cruise remains one of the last true movie stars. "Top Gun: Maverick" proved mass audiences will still show up for him when the film delivers spectacle and clarity. "Digger" asked them to show up for something else. Most stayed home. Colleen Hoover thriller takes the crown "Verity" opened at No. 1 with $32.6 million. The thriller stars Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett and comes from a Colleen Hoover novel. Other Hoover adaptations have also posted solid starts: "It Ends With Us" opened to $50 million, "Reminders of Him" to $18 million, and "Regretting You" to $13.7 million. Readers-turned-ticket-buyers keep outperforming another round of awards-season positioning. Hathaway has had a busy year with five new releases, including "Mother Mary," "The Devil Wears Prada 2," "The Odyssey," and "The End of Oak Street." She is also set to reteam with Cruise on "Days of Thunder 2," scheduled for summer 2028. Echoes of an earlier Cruise miss The last time a Cruise vehicle opened this weakly in spirit, if not in exact dollars, was 2017's "The Mummy." That film debuted to $31 million and helped kill Universal's planned shared monster franchise. "Digger" now risks a different kind of damage. USA TODAY noted the poor performance could complicate any Oscar campaign. The movie is also set to be the last Warner Bros. release before the studio's merger with Paramount Skydance. Studios chasing trophies while merger paperwork looms is not a new story in modern Hollywood. Spending nine figures on a somber star vehicle and watching it finish fifth is the part that keeps repeating. Weekend estimates can still revise. International numbers were not detailed in the early report. Domestic audiences, though, already voted with their wallets. Cruise will be fine. He has the sequel lane and a public that still trusts him in the cockpit. The executives who keep mistaking industry applause for popular demand are the ones left explaining the math. The post Cruise's 'Digger' stumbles with an $8 million opening weekend appeared first on American Almanac .