• Disastrous Opening Weekend: Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s dark comedy satire Digger opened to roughly $8 million to $10 million USD across 3,300 North American theaters against a reported $125 million+ production budget.
• Polarizing Reception: The film earned a dismal C+ CinemaScore and sharp critical divides, marking Cruise’s lowest opening weekend since 2007’s Lions for Lambs.
• Vicious Political Satire: Despite the box office stumble, praise has emerged for Cruise’s transformative performance as energy magnate Digger Rockwell and the movie’s fearless social commentary.

The numbers are in for Tom Cruise’s new film Digger, and… it’s not looking good so far.

Billed as a dark comedy/satire project, this movie was supposed to be a major game-changer when buzz started building a month ago, but things haven’t gone so well since its official theatrical release. To put it succinctly, Digger came with a reported $125 million production budget, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and the opening weekend so far has pulled in around $8 million to $10 million USD from 3,300 North American theaters. That makes it the lowest opening weekend for Cruise since his 2007 war drama Lions for Lambs (though that had a far smaller budget of $6.7 million).

Sometimes, however, critical reviews can be harsh yet entirely separate from what general audiences feel about a film. That too, unfortunately, has moviegoers divided: Digger registered a C+ CinemaScore, again standing as one of the actor’s lowest audience ratings.

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Critique, Controversy, and Praise

Directed by Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Digger stars Tom Cruise as wealthy, eccentric energy magnate Digger Rockwell. While Cruise has drawn praise for his almost unrecognizable physical transformation, the movie itself was described as “weird and polarizing” by BBC Culture. Variety slammed it as “bombastic, didactic gloom-mongering,” while Fox News offered a similar critique, calling it “a grandiose and messy political satire”.

Well, is there anybody who actually liked Digger?

Actually, quite a few did! Liz Shannon Miller from Consequence offered a glowing counter-perspective in her review:

“Even without drawing a direct line from today’s corruption to the messages of the movie, Digger offers concrete proof that even Tom Cruise can’t ignore how fucked up things have gotten lately, and how much worse they stand to get if the planet spins on like this. It’s a bold statement made even bolder by the person starring in it — screw jumping off mountains, satirizing the men in charge with this level of viciousness feels like the biggest risk of Cruise’s career. But it pays off brilliantly, especially in the final, unforgettable moments of the film. But boy, has it earned its anger.”

Theatrical Experience vs. Streaming Reality

Miller’s review cuts right to the heart of why Digger is proving so fascinating. While the film certainly has its flaws, it offers redeeming qualities that make it a compelling watch—if you know what you’re stepping into.

The bigger question is whether audiences are willing to buy a theater ticket for an uncomfortable, politically charged satire in an era where streaming options are endless. For many selective moviegoers, the initial trailers painted Digger as intriguing, but not necessarily an urgent big-screen event. That doesn’t mean it’s an objectively bad film; it simply means it may find its true, appreciative cult audience once it lands on digital platforms.

Either way, it remains a rare, fearless risk from one of Hollywood’s last true movie stars—and one worth judging for yourself.

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