Tom Cruise's "Digger" Just Posted His Smallest Opening In 19 Years — And The Numbers Are Brutal

Stop scrolling, because Hollywood's box office report card is in, and Tom Cruise just had his worst opening weekend since 2007. Yes, really.

His $160M+ oil-tycoon satire Digger is limping to an estimated $8M debut, while a Colleen Hoover thriller strolls off with the crown. Let's get into it.

The Tea ☕

• Digger is heading for roughly $8M domestically, per Deadline, Cruise's lowest opening since Lions for Lambs ($6.7M) in 2007.
• Meanwhile Verity, starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, is on track for about $33.6M and the No. 1 spot.
• Both films earned a C+ CinemaScore. Awkward group photo, honestly.

So What Went Wrong?

Digger stars Cruise as a powerful oil tycoon whose company sparks an ecological calamity, and it's directed by Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, according to Variety.

The film was reportedly greenlit at $125M but ballooned to somewhere between $160M and $180M after production ran long, per Variety's sources. That's a LOT of tickets to sell.

Variety also notes Cruise did a full-tilt press tour: a GQ cover, a "New Heights" podcast stop, and a "Risky Business"-inspired spirit-tunnel entrance on The Jennifer Hudson Show. It wasn't enough to save opening day, which brought in just $3.4M on Friday.

Wait, Was It That Divisive?

Pretty much. Deadline points out that the Rotten Tomatoes audience score sits at 71%, while critics are at 51% Rotten. Not a total disaster on the audience side, but not a rave either.

Deadline describes it as a "heavy dialogue driven, political absurdist satire" and says satire historically struggles at the box office. It also notes a twist that swerves away from the western apocalyptic comedy the marketing sold.

Online chatter wasn't helping. Deadline quotes RelishMix tracking, where one viewer said that after a nearly three-minute trailer they still didn't know what the movie was about. We've all been there.

Who Actually Showed Up?

Iñárritu has reportedly said he made it for Gen Z, and Deadline says about 60% of the (small) audience was aged 18-34. It skewed 73% male, and just 47% said they'd definitely recommend it. IMAX and premium screens delivered close to half the gross.

Meanwhile, Over At Verity...

Hoover-verse fans are eating. Verity, in which Hathaway plays a famed author whose injury leads her husband (Hartnett) to hire a struggling writer (Johnson) to finish her books, grabbed $15.1M on Friday, per Variety. Deadline calls its projected $33.6M the second-best opening for a Hoover adaptation.

The C+ is her lowest CinemaScore yet (It Ends With Us got an A-). Deadline's take? Don't panic, since Fifty Shades of Grey also got a C+ and did just fine.

The Bigger Picture

There's a plot twist behind the scenes too. Deadline reports Warner Bros. film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who greenlit Digger, are exiting as the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger kicks in. Their last day is reportedly Tuesday, a bittersweet end after hits like Sinners, Weapons and One Battle After Another.

The silver lining? The overall weekend is still looking healthy, with Deadline estimating a third straight $100M+ weekend.

So, was Digger a bold swing that audiences weren't ready for, or did the marketing leave everyone confused? Did you buy a ticket, or are you waiting for streaming? Sound off below.

Sources: Deadline | Variety