Tom Cruise has spent decades being one of Hollywood’s safest bets. This weekend was a reminder that even the biggest names can miss.
Digger, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and starring Cruise, opened to about $8 million in North American theaters, according to estimates reported by the Associated Press. The weak debut lands especially hard because the film carried a large production budget before marketing costs.
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The contrast was impossible to miss. Amazon MGM’s Verity opened at No. 1 with more than $32 million domestically, leaving Digger far behind in its first weekend.
That does not mean audiences have suddenly stopped caring about Tom Cruise. It does mean Hollywood will be asking whether Digger was simply a difficult sell, whether the marketing failed, or whether even enormous star power has limits.
For Warner Bros., the timing is especially awkward: the studio is approaching a major corporate merger while one of its high-profile releases starts with a steep financial climb.
Was this just the wrong movie, or is the era of automatic Tom Cruise openings changing?
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