Tom Cruise Defends Digger After Box Office Flop Opening Weekend

Tom Cruise suffered one of his worst box office openings in history with “Digger,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s satirical black comedy that bombed with $8 million in North America on a production budget north of $160 million. But Cruise isn’t one to judge a movie based on its first weekend in theaters.

“When I am making [movies], I’m not going, ‘Opening weekend!’ I feel very much like we’re going to make something that is a lasting piece of cinema,” Cruise said in a now-viral interview on the “On Film With Kevin McCarthy” podcast that was published the same day “Digger” opened in theaters.

Cruise and Iñárritu recalled Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” as a movie that was a “masterpiece” that “everybody killed” when it opened in theaters. It later emerged as one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made.

“They transcend… you just hope you can make a film that can last,” Cruise said. “So many things happen when you open a movie. I was fortunate to release movies in the 80s and 90s, when movies would stay in the theater for a year. With ‘Rain Man’ and ‘Born on the Fourth of July,’ these movie would just play and play for a year. How can I make a film that can translate and last and evolve? And I feel that way…. that is ‘Digger,’ it’s one of those movies.”

With its production budget between $160 million and $180 million, plus a $100 million marketing budget, “Digger” would need to gross $350 million in theaters worldwide just to break even at the box office. That figure will be impossible to hit after the movie’s $20 million global start. The movie is now primed to lose at least $150 million to $200 million theatrically.

“Digger” was widely touted as Cruise’s first non-action movie role in nearly a decade. He stars in the movie as Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon who is faced with the end of the world after one of his rigs in Antartica malfunctions and sends ice caps hurtling towards Europe and more. Reviews for “Digger” were sharply divided, with some hailing it as a masterpiece and others panning it as an insufferable misfire.

Cruise also took to his social media pages during the opening weekend for “Digger” to tell his fans that it was an honor to make the movie, adding: “Thank you to the entire cast and crew for your dedication, hard work and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we created.”

Watch Cruise’s full interview on the “On Film…” podcast in the video below.