A $250 million loss. That’s where Digger, the climate change satire starring Tom Cruise, is reportedly headed by the end of its theatrical run, according to TheWrap.
That number is brutal. And the people who reportedly expect it are the ones who now own the movie.
The new bosses aren’t optimistic
TheWrap’s report said insiders at Skydance, the new parent company over Warner Bros., don’t expect Digger to clear $40 million at the worldwide box office. If you’ve seen the opening weekend numbers, that projection won’t surprise you.
The film made just $8 million domestically in its first weekend. International audiences added another $12 million. That’s $20 million worldwide for a movie with Cruise’s name above the title, which is not a sentence anyone at the studio wanted to read.
Warner Bros. hasn’t commented on the claims.
A divisive movie that didn’t sell its own divisiveness
Digger has split critics and audiences alike. There have been efforts to spin that mixed reaction into a selling point (the old “you have to see it to decide for yourself” approach), but none of that seems to have gotten people into theaters.
On paper, this should’ve been an event. Alejandro G. Iñárritu directed it, and he won Best Director Oscars in back-to-back years for Birdman and The Revenant. Cruise is about as close to a guaranteed draw as Hollywood still has. Put the two together and you’d expect at least a decent opening weekend.
Bad timing in the boardroom
The corporate backdrop doesn’t help. Paramount is acquiring Warner Bros. in a controversial $110 billion deal, and the two studios will now sit side by side under Skydance.
So the new owners inherit a Tom Cruise movie whose first weekend brought in $20 million worldwide. If the insiders are right, it’ll top out under $40 million.
