Having completed three weeks of release, Tom Cruise‘s new political satire film has emerged not only as the biggest flop of the year, but also as the biggest flop of his storied career. Ironically, the movie was marketed as a tribute to Cruise’s contributions to cinema, with an early trailer that was mostly made up of clips from his most memorable movies. There was a rather unsubtle Oscar campaign being prepared for Cruise ahead of the film’s release, and while he can still be honored by the Academy, his chances are getting bleaker by the day. The film simply has too much baggage at this stage, and this week’s theatrical purging will certainly not help, especially since the reviews have been so divisive.
The film was given a massive debut in more than 3,300 theaters, but the writing was already on the wall. It bombed with just $8 million in its domestic debut, against a budget that has been reported to be as high as $180 million. It was dropped from several IMAX locations after one week and replaced by Christopher Nolan‘s summer sensation The Odyssey. Two weeks into its release, the movie was removed from 2,500 theaters — the 10th-biggest drop of all time. This week, the movie is set to lose another 583 theaters. It’ll enter its fourth week of release in just 200-odd locations, representing a 3,100 decrease in its theatrical footprint since its debut.
Here’s How Much the Epic Satire Has Grossed
We’re talking, of course, about Digger, which has so far grossed less than $50 million worldwide. For context, even Joker: Folie à Deux managed to hit the $200 million mark. Directed by two-time Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Digger opened to divisive reviews, with some calling it a self-aggrandizing slog and others hailing it as a prescient masterpiece. It now sits at a 52% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “A stylized satire whose audacious design proves too mannered for some of the laughs to smoothly land, Digger is a bold swing of the shovel by Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu that misses as often as it strikes gold.” Also starring Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, and Emma D’Arcy, the movie doesn’t yet have a PVOD release date. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
October 2, 2026
Runtime
128 minutes
Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writers
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone
Producers
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Michael Sharp, Tom Cruise