Tom Cruise’s latest film, Digger, is expected to lose around $245m (£185m), according to Hollywood analysts, as the picture continues to perform poorly in cinemas. Ticket sales for the satirical black comedy fell by roughly 60% during its second weekend in release.
Cruise plays oil magnate Digger Rockwell in the film, which has taken around $35m (£26m) globally so far. The studio, Warner Bros, is estimated to have spent about $280m (£211m) making and marketing it.
Digger’s earnings measured against its budget
Cruise recently said he never thought about movies in terms of their opening weekend. Instead, he said, he focused on making films that would hopefully translate, last and evolve over time.
Analysts note that the film’s takings relative to its budget mean it could become one of the biggest film flops in Hollywood history.
A Hollywood trade publication said Digger was expected to finish its box office run with around $50m (£38m) worldwide. It estimated the film would need about $350m (£264m) to break even, citing its budget, marketing costs, the share of ticket sales that go to theatres and likely spending on an awards campaign.
A Warner Bros spokesman pushed back slightly on that figure. He told the publication the film’s break-even point was $300m (£227m).
Digger’s weak performance against Cruise’s recent hits
Digger’s performance stands in sharp contrast to the success of franchise-driven films starring Cruise in recent years, including new instalments of the Top Gun and Mission: Impossible series. The film is directed by Alejandro G Iñárritu, best known for Birdman, Babel and The Revenant.
Digger was also the last standalone release for Warner Bros before the studio’s recent takeover by Paramount.
The Social Reckoning also struggles at cinemas
Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, starring Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White, also performed poorly. The sequel-style follow-up to the Oscar-winning The Social Network struggled on its opening weekend.
The film took $5.5m in the US, significantly lower than the $22m its predecessor earned on its opening weekend in 2010, a figure not adjusted for inflation. Globally, it took around $9m (£6.8m).
The film tells the true story of Facebook engineer Frances Haugan, who leaked internal documents to a reporter after becoming concerned about some of the company’s practices. In the US box office chart, it was beaten by the horror movie Other Mommy, the psychological thriller Verity, the video game adaptation Resident Evil and Brad Pitt’s wilderness thriller Heart of the Beast.
