Tom Cruise digs a hole he can’t get out of, as “Digger” becomes historic box office bomb

Ryan ColemanMon, October 5, 2026 at 12:46 AM UTC

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Tom Cruise in ‘Digger’Credit: Warner BrosKey Points -

Digger opened to spectacularly poor numbers at the box office this weekend.

Alejandro Iñárritu’s audacious satire starring Tom Cruise cost between $140 and $180 million to make, and pulled in just $8 million domestically and $20 million globally.

The pulpy Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity, starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, took the No. 1 spot with $32.6 million domestically and $62.6 million globally.

Tom, Alejandro — it’s time to put the shovels down.

Diggerfailed to unearth a profit at the box office this weekend, bombing at an epic scale not yet seen this year. The eighth feature from Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu, and his first to feature superstar Tom Cruise, cost between $140 and $180 million to produce. And that sum excludes marketing and promotional expenses, as is customary for budgetary estimations.

The upper end of that range represents the largest budget Iñárritu has ever been given to play with — and the $8 million domestic and $20 million global sums that Digger kicked up represent the largest shortfall of his career, per Rentrak. Even the most commercially successful films drop off between 30 and 50 percent in proceeds after week 1, so even if Digger proves to have surprisingly long legs at the box office, it’s a forgone conclusion that this bomb will remain a bomb.

The news looks especially bad for Warner Bros., which can add another flop to its 2026 shelf, following the disappointing returns of Practical Magic 2, The End of Oak Street, and The Bride.

Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh in ‘Verity’Credit: Alisha Wetherill/Amazon MGM Studios

Digger’s pittance earned it No. 5 on the weekend’s domestic leaderboard and No. 6 globally, behind new releases, global premieres, and films already deep into their release cycles.

But another new release topped both charts. Verity, the latest pulpy thrill-ride drawn from the torrid pages of Colleen Hoover, scored No. 1 domestically and globally. At home, the sexed-up story about a mysterious author and her timid ghostwriter — which casts Anne Hathaway in the former role and Dakota Johnson in the latter — scared up $32.6 million. Abroad, Verity scored $62.6 million, an excellent first showing for a film made for an estimated $40 million.

Overall, the historic heights the box office reached over the summer, built on the successes of mega-hits like Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey, have well and gone. According to Rentrak, the October 2-4 domestic marketplace raised roughly $99 million, which represents a 21-percent drop from last weekend. But it’s still up about 15 percent compared with the same weekend last year.

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Elsewhere, Zach Cregger’s fresh take on the Resident Evil franchisecontinues slaying in its third week in theaters. Austin Abrams’ tour through zombie-land scared up $12.5 million domestically, earning it the No. 2 spot, and an additional $29 million globally.

Paramount’s big fall offering for the dads, the Brad Pitt–German shepherd two-hander Heart of the Beast, snagged the No. 3 spot domestically with an $11 million week 2 gross. Globally, the film outperformed Resident Evil, earning an impressive $32.5 million for an overall gross of $98.7 million — finally clearing its estimated budget of $82 million.

A panoply of upcoming releases have viable shots at the top spot next weekend.

First and most promising is Jessica Chastain’s off-kilter horror offering Other Mommy. Horror is always lucrative, but has been especially potent this year, with the monumental successes of low-budget films like Obsession and Backrooms.

Aaron Sorkin hopes to strike gold again with TheSocial Network follow-up The Social Reckoning, which swaps Jesse Eisenberg for Jeremy Strong in its portrayal of controversial tech exec Mark Zuckerberg. Finally, while it doesn’t have much of a shot at box office glory, Romanian master filmmaker Cristian Mungiu will open his latest, the Cannes-winning social drama Fjord, which is shaping up to be a big contender this awards season.

on Entertainment Weekly

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