Two high-profile Hollywood films have delivered underwhelming box office results this week, with Tom Cruise’s latest satirical black comedy *Digger* on track to become one of the costliest box office flops in the industry’s modern history.
Leading Hollywood industry analysts project that Warner Bros. Pictures could lose roughly $245 million (£185 million) on the A-list production, which stars Cruise as ruthless oil tycoon Digger Rockwell. Box office momentum collapsed sharply in the movie’s second week of release, with ticket sales plummeting by 60% from its opening weekend. After two weeks in cinemas worldwide, the film has only accumulated $35 million (£26 million) in total gross revenue.
The combined production and marketing budget for *Digger* clocks in at an estimated $280 million (£211 million). To break even, industry analysts calculate the film would need to gross roughly $350 million to cover all costs, including theater revenue cuts and planned awards season campaign spending. A spokesperson for Warner Bros. has pushed back slightly on that estimate, placing the break-even threshold at $300 million (£227 million) instead. Even that lower target remains far out of reach: entertainment trade publication Variety projects *Digger* will end its full theatrical run with just $50 million (£38 million) in global gross sales.
This catastrophic performance puts *Digger* in unenviable company alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest all-time flops, which all lost nine-figure sums. That infamous list includes 1995’s *Cutthroat Island*, 2002’s *The Adventures of Pluto Nash*, 2005’s *Sahara*, 2012’s *John Carter*, 2011’s *Mars Needs Moms*, 2022’s *Amsterdam*, 1999’s *The 13th Warrior*, 2023’s *The Marvels* and 2008’s *Speed Racer*.
Cruise’s latest outing stands in stark contrast to his recent blockbuster success, where his long-running *Top Gun* and *Mission: Impossible* franchises have delivered billions in global box office revenue. Addressing the underperformance last week, Cruise pushed back against short-term box office metrics, saying, “I never thought of movies when I’m making them [in terms of] opening weekend,” adding that he prioritized creating work that “hopefully will translate, last and evolve.”
Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro G Iñárritu, best known for acclaimed hits *Birdman*, *Babel* and *The Revenant*, *Digger* has also faced overwhelmingly negative critical reception. That poor critical response prompted Warner Bros. to overhaul its marketing strategy late in the film’s rollout, launching a new campaign urging moviegoers to “decide for yourself” whether to see the film.
Notably, *Digger* marks the last standalone film release from Warner Bros. before the studio’s recent acquisition by Paramount Global.
In a separate box office disappointment over the same weekend, Aaron Sorkin’s *The Social Reckoning*, the unofficial follow-up to 2010’s Oscar-winning *The Social Network*, also failed to resonate with audiences. The film, which tells the true story of former Facebook engineer Frances Haugan, who leaked internal company documents exposing controversial platform practices, opened to just $5.5 million (£4.1 million) in domestic ticket sales. That figure is a fraction of the $22 million opening weekend gross its predecessor earned back in 2010, before adjusting for inflation. Globally, the film pulled in just $9 million (£6.8 million) across its opening weekend, starring Mikey Madison, Jeremy Strong and Jeremy Allen White in lead roles.
*The Social Reckoning* landed outside the top four on the U.S. domestic box office chart, outperformed by horror title *Other Mommy*, psychological thriller *Verity*, the video game adaptation *Resident Evil*, and Brad Pitt’s wilderness thriller *Heart of the Beast*.