Tom Cruise's Digger bombs hard at the box office

Tom Cruise's latest film, Digger, has stumbled badly in its opening weekend, per /Film. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and released by Warner Bros., the high-priced dramedy scraped together just $20 million globally, with a paltry $8 million from North American theaters. Industry watchers had predicted a weak start, but the actual numbers were far worse.

This flop is especially costly given the film's reported budget, said to be between $160 and $180 million before marketing. The financial blow for Warner Bros. comes as its merger with Paramount is finalized.

The outlet suggests the film's failure could tarnish Cruise's reputation at a stage when his career is at a crossroads. He spent years as a top action star, and Digger was seen as a pivot away from that genre. The project did not deliver.

Cruise's next known project is a sequel to Days of Thunder, a move seen as chasing the success of Top Gun: Maverick and the recent F1 film. The report speculates that more guaranteed hits, like a potential Top Gun 3, may now be essential for the star to reaffirm his box office power.