Tom Cruise's 'Digger' Opens Softly With $1.2M in Previews

Tom Cruise has never been a stranger to high-stakes gambles — on screen and off — but his latest collaboration, the black comedy Digger, is facing a sobering early reception at the North American box office. Thursday preview screenings delivered $1.2 million in domestic earnings, a figure that, measured against the film's reported $125 million production budget, sets up what could be a difficult opening conversation for all involved.

What the Preview Numbers Signal

According to Just Jared, both Deadline and box office tracker The Numbers logged $1.2 million from Digger's preview period — a modest haul that begins to sketch the contours of the film's commercial trajectory. Weekend projections from TheWrap place the opening somewhere between $12 million and $15 million domestically, landing in the low-to-mid teens range. For a prestige production carrying a nine-figure price tag — and that figure doesn't account for marketing and distribution costs — those numbers represent a notably soft launch rather than the kind of triumphant arrival that a collaboration between two major Hollywood forces might typically command.

Soft openings, of course, do not automatically translate into long-term failure. Films with strong word-of-mouth and critical traction can sustain themselves over multiple weeks, gradually building the kind of audience that eventually makes the ledger balance. Whether Digger has that kind of staying power remains to be seen.

A High-Profile Reunion With Serious Pedigree

The weight of expectation surrounding Digger is entirely understandable when you consider what's behind it. Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the Oscar-winning architect of Birdman and The Revenant, returns to English-language filmmaking for the first time since his 2015 survival epic — a nearly decade-long absence that naturally amplifies curiosity. Meanwhile, Cruise himself is working with Warner Bros. for the first time since Edge of Tomorrow in 2014, making this something of a reunion on multiple fronts. J.J. Abrams previously suggested that Cruise would 'blow our minds' in the role, and the assembled cast — Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons — reflects serious dramatic ambition.

Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a man of tremendous influence who, after inadvertently triggering a potentially catastrophic crisis, repositions himself as humanity's unlikely savior. It's a premise ripe with satirical possibility, the kind of dark-comic territory that rewards patient filmmaking and attentive audiences — though those same qualities can sometimes work against a wide commercial release.

Competition and Context

The opening weekend landscape isn't doing Digger any favors either. Verity, the latest adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel and featuring Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson, pulled in $4.5 million during its own preview period — more than three times what Digger managed. That gap in preview performance speaks to the differing audience pools each film is drawing from, and it underscores how challenging the marketplace has become even for star-driven, filmmaker-led projects.

It's worth noting that Cruise has demonstrated a remarkable ability to generate cultural momentum around his projects, particularly in the IMAX space. His personal investment in the theatrical experience — including surprising AMC staff with a private IMAX screening of The Odyssey — reflects a performer who genuinely believes in cinema's communal power. Whether that enthusiasm translates into sustained audience turnout for Digger will be the defining question over the next few weeks.

Looking Ahead

For all the cautionary notes embedded in the early data, it would be premature to write Digger off entirely. Iñárritu's films have historically polarized opening-weekend metrics while accumulating both awards attention and cultural longevity — Birdman itself opened on just four screens before expanding. The combination of a bold director, a legitimately intriguing premise, and one of cinema's most durable stars gives the film a foundation that raw preview numbers can't fully capture. The full picture, as it almost always does, will take time to develop. With future Cruise projects already generating industry chatter, the actor's broader momentum remains intact — but Digger will need to find its audience quickly to justify its considerable investment.