Tom Cruise Said He Doesn’t Make Movies for ‘Opening Weekend’ Right Before ‘Digger’ Bombed: ‘You Hope to Make a Film That Can Last’ — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- "Digger" opened to $8 million in North America on a $160–180 million production budget plus roughly $100 million in marketing, requiring about $350 million worldwide to break even.
- Tom Cruise, on the "On Film With Kevin McCarthy" podcast published the day "Digger" opened, said he doesn't make movies for opening weekend and instead seeks cinema that can "transcend" and "last."
- Cruise invoked Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" — which "everybody killed" on opening — as a masterpiece that outlasted its debut, and compared "Digger"'s model to "Rain Man" and "Born on the Fourth of July," films he said played in theaters for a year.
- "Digger" grossed just $20 million globally in its opening weekend, putting the film on track to lose $150–200 million theatrically.
- The film, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is Cruise's first non-action role in nearly a decade and drew sharply divided reviews — some hailing it as a masterpiece, others calling it an insufferable misfire.
- Cruise posted on social media during opening weekend to thank the cast and crew, calling the experience "truly unforgettable" and saying he was "so proud of what we created."
Why it matters: With "Digger" headed for a $150–200 million theatrical loss on a $260 million-plus cost basis, Cruise and his financiers are absorbing one of the largest write-downs of his career — a costly test of his pivot from proven action vehicles to awards-season prestige projects. The sting is doubled by timing: Cruise's defense of long-tail cinema hit the internet on the same day the film posted one of the worst domestic openings of his career.
Ask SkimNews
