In “Digger,” Tom Cruise portrays a powerful oil tycoon who is bracing for an ecological disaster of epic proportions. But nothing could have prepared him for the catastrophe that’s unfolding at the box office, where “Digger” has collapsed with an embarrassing $8 million from 3,321 North American theaters. Rivals believe the figure will be closer to $7.5 million when the final numbers are tallied on Monday.
With a production budget of $160 to $180 million, “Digger” will wind up as not just one of the biggest bombs of the year but potentially of all time. Warner Bros. was hoping the combination of Tom Cruise, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and director Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose critical and commercial wins include “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” would at least propel initial grosses to $18 million to $20 million. And even those ticket sales would have been financially disastrous for the mega-budgeted satirical film.
Box office experts say a movie of this size would have needed a debut near $40 million to justify its price tag. Those projections were revised down (and revised down again) after a deluge of bad buzz. The R-rated satire opened in fifth place behind another newcomer, Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson’s psychological thriller “Verity,” and three holdovers, including “Resident Evil” and “Heart of the Beast.” “For a black comedy, the numbers are not bad.
But black comedies are small films, and this isn’t a small film. It’s a Tom Cruise movie,” says analyst David A. In a recent ad, the studio told moviegoers to “decide for yourself” after critics bashed the movie as “unpleasant” and “baffling.” Another marketing spot suggested that only American audiences disliked “Digger.” However the movie was equally rejected at the international box office with a tragic $12 million from 73 international markets for a global start of $20 million.
Warner Bros. greenlit the film for $125 million, but the price tag soared after production ran long. Since the studio spent another $100 million on global marketing efforts, “Digger” has a theatrical break-even point of roughly $350 million globally, according to executives with knowledge of similar films. A Warner Bros. spokesperson pushed back, saying the film’s break-even point is $300 million.
Either way, “Digger” is primed to lose at least $150 million to $200 million theatrically. (Theater owners keep roughly half of ticket sales.) Profitability for the studio will take even longer because Cruise gets first-dollar gross, meaning he earns a percentage of revenues before the studio recoups any costs. Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. is set to close next week. News broke on Friday that Warner co-chief’s Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy are leaving the studio when the merger closes on Oct. 6.
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