The R-rated black comedy's dismal debut against Amazon MGM's Verity threatens to become one of the year's largest studio losses as Warner Bros. nears its Paramount merger.
Tom Cruise's new film 'Digger' opened in more than 3,000 North American theaters on Friday, October 2, 2026, and immediately fell far short of expectations, grossing an estimated $3.4 million from 3,321 locations, according to Variety. Trade estimates now put the Warner Bros. release's three-day opening weekend at roughly $7.5 million to $8 million, a result that places it among the weakest debuts of Cruise's theatrical career and sets up a potential loss of $125 million to $150 million for the studio, according to The New York Times.
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A Friday Night Collapse Against Verity
'Digger' arrived in theaters the same weekend as Amazon MGM's 'Verity,' and the gap between the two films was immediate and stark. 'Verity,' a psychological thriller directed by Michael Showalter and starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, earned an estimated $15.1 million on Friday from 3,510 theaters, more than four times Cruise's opening-night total, according to Variety and the Tribune. The film is projected to finish the weekend near $33 million to $33.6 million, according to Hollywood Outbreak and The New York Times, making it the clear box office No. 1 and pushing 'Digger' into third place behind other holdover titles.
The Hollywood Reporter characterized the Warner Bros. film's trajectory as potentially Cruise's weakest opening in nearly two decades, a notable marker given his standing as one of the industry's most dependable theatrical draws. Variety's estimate of $7.5 million domestically was echoed across multiple trade outlets, while The New York Times placed the final figure slightly higher, at approximately $8 million, underscoring that even the most optimistic reads of the opening weekend describe a significant commercial failure.
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Reviews, CinemaScore and a Genre Mismatch
'Digger' is an R-rated black comedy, a category that carries a narrower built-in audience than the four-quadrant action films typically associated with Cruise's brand, Variety noted in its box office analysis. The film arrived after a wave of negative reviews and what Variety described as divided word of mouth among early audiences, factors that compounded its limited reach in a genre with less crossover appeal than tentpole action spectacles.
Opening-night audiences assigned 'Digger' a C grade on CinemaScore, according to The New York Times, a weak score that signals limited enthusiasm even among moviegoers who chose to see the film on its first day. A separate report tracked by Ground News characterized the grade as among the worst CinemaScore results of Cruise's career. The New York Times further suggested that audiences may have been resistant to seeing Cruise, long positioned as an "never-aging action star," cast instead as a gray-haired older man in a quietly unconventional dramatic role — though the publication framed this as interpretive commentary rather than a confirmed cause, alongside the simpler explanation that audiences were simply following the film's poor reviews.
A Budget That Ballooned Far Beyond Its Greenlight
The financial stakes attached to 'Digger' are unusually steep. Variety reported that the film was originally greenlit at approximately $125 million, but sources familiar with the production said costs ultimately climbed to between $160 million and $180 million following an extended shoot. On top of production costs, The New York Times reported that Warner Bros. spent nearly $100 million on marketing, with Cruise's production requirements reportedly including private air travel arrangements.
Taken together, the newspaper's analysis estimated that Warner Bros. could lose $125 million to $150 million on the project overall, a figure that would rank 'Digger' among the largest theatrical losses of 2026. Those projections remain estimates rather than finalized studio disclosures, and the ultimate financial outcome will hinge on international box office performance, future theatrical legs, digital and streaming sales, and licensing revenue, none of which has yet been reported.
Warner Bros.' Last Stand Before the Paramount Merger
The timing of the release carries added corporate weight. 'Digger' is expected to be Warner Bros.' final film released as an independent studio before its acquisition by Paramount, a transaction The New York Times reported was scheduled to close on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. The film's underwhelming debut therefore closes out the studio's independent era on a financially damaging note, arriving alongside trade reporting of a Warner Bros. leadership shake-up tied to the release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The disappointment also extends a difficult year for the studio's broader slate. The New York Times reported that none of Warner Bros.' 2026 releases had crossed $100 million domestically at the time of its reporting, with titles including 'Supergirl' and 'The Bride' already noted as having generated significant losses. 'Digger's' opening adds another underperforming title to that ledger just as the studio transitions into a new ownership structure under Paramount, with no official Warner Bros. statement addressing the film's performance or projected losses identified in available reporting.
What Comes Next for Cruise and the Box Office Race
The immediate benchmark will be the finalized three-day numbers, expected to confirm 'Digger' in the $7.5 million to $8 million range domestically against 'Verity's' roughly $33 million to $33.6 million debut. Despite the bruising opening, Cruise has publicly backed the film even after its weak reception, according to Ground News reporting on his response to the CinemaScore results.
The result tests whether Cruise's star power can carry a film outside the action-driven spectacles that have defined his recent commercial success, while 'Verity's' strong opening reaffirms the box office pull of Colleen Hoover's source material, marking it as the fourth Hoover adaptation released in roughly two years. How 'Digger' performs internationally and in subsequent weeks will determine whether Warner Bros.' projected losses narrow or deepen as the studio heads into its merger with Paramount.
