The Alejandro Iñárritu comedy, which stars Cruise as an eccentric oil businessman who must fix the problem he helped create, was panned by critics and disappointed audiences, leaving studio Warner Bros. with a large balance sheet hole following its merger with Paramount Skydance.

After two weeks in theaters, the film has grossed only $14.4 million in North America and $35.3 million globally, very low numbers for a big-budget film that point to a cumulative loss in the region of $245 million.

“Economically it should be considered a disaster,” Christopher Rosen of Hollywood trade publication The Uncle told AFP.

“It cost anywhere from $160 million to $180 million, that’s before even marketing, and it made relatively nothing at the box office.”

Marketing a film like “Digger” can cost up to $100 million.

Daniel Loria of BoxOffice Pro said the film was greenlit during the tenure of outgoing Warner Bros. executives Pam Abedy and Michael De Luca, who made their name by giving filmmakers the resources and studio budget to make original, innovative films.

“Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.

As an art-house film that satirizes American culture through the lens of a non-American like Iñárritu, “Digger” was probably destined to get a heavy lift.

Loria said, “The general audience will never get behind this movie, right? I don’t think it was ever designed that way.”

“The film takes every opportunity to push the audience in uncomfortable directions.

“It is not easy for American audiences to accept films that criticize American culture, especially when they are made by foreigners.”

– A possible mismatch –

The presence of Cruise, who is sometimes credited with saving the box office after the pandemic with “Top Gun: Maverick,” was always going to make the film stand out.

“You’ve got arguably the world’s biggest movie star everywhere for this movie,” said Paul Dergarabedian, market analyst at Rentrak.

“He was very excited about this film and working with Alejandro Iñárritu.

“Because of Tom Cruise’s star power, this movie was in the spotlight. Everything he does is under a microscope.”

The size of Cruise’s star in the movie sky makes the comparison even less attractive: “Digger” was never going to be in the same ballpark as the billion-dollar “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

But the film’s box office is consistent with the kind of films Iñárritu makes, Loria said.

His films “aren’t really concerned about their box office totals; they’re concerned about having an artistic endeavor behind them”.

This makes “Digger” a mismatch, Loria said.

“Unfortunately, I think it was marketed as a general audience film, whereas at heart, it is an art-house film.”

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