Tom Cruise’s Digger is on course for $8 million, his worst opening since Lions for Lambs in 2007
Tom Cruise’s Digger is on the ropes at the box office, with projections pointing to his weakest opening in years.
This weekend at the cinema, it's not the story Tom Cruise or Alejandro G. Iñárritu were hoping for. Digger, the star-studded, big-budget outing, has stumbled right out of the gate. Up against stiff competition and some truly dire advance buzz, it's opening lower than anyone predicted—including those of us who had already set the bar pretty low.
Digger is on track for an $8 million opening weekend, marking Tom Cruise’s worst box office debut as a leading man since 2007.
The numbers aren't just a bit off—they're eye-wateringly bad if you're the studio wondering where your $130 million investment just vanished to. That $8 million opening for Cruise is his lowest since Lions for Lambs slunk into cinemas in 2007, and that was a much cheaper film. If you try to adjust Digger's debut for inflation, it's even worse. So not exactly the blockbuster comeback Iñárritu and Cruise were probably banking on.
To really twist the knife, Digger is being utterly walloped by Verity, the new Colleen Hoover adaptation starring Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway. Verity is projected to take about $33 million. Not bad for a first weekend, though the shine is dulling quickly since the all-important CinemaScore came in at C+—the same dismal grade Digger earned. Safe to say, audiences aren't in love with either.
The rest of the box office top five is looking as you'd expect, loaded up with holdovers:
- Resident Evil is hanging on to second place, pulling an extra $12 million and bringing its total up to $124 million. Zombie franchises, eh?
- Brad Pitt's Heart of the Beast is actually holding up well. It's only dropping 45% (that's decent for week two), making $11 million and reaching a $38 million cumulative. Good film, worth a look if you haven't already.
- Primetime is having a slightly tougher time—off by 56% to $8.2 million, but still on track to net $34 million overall. That'll suit A24 just fine.
- Avengers: Endgame Encore is nosediving, taking an 87% tumble in week two, down to $4.2 million, which makes sense—anyone interested in the new footage has already seen it and the rest simply don't care.
Early days, mind, so the final numbers could shift a little—box office weekends have a habit of throwing a curveball or two. Proper breakdown lands tomorrow, but at the moment, Digger is looking like a miss in a year Tom Cruise could have done without another one.