Tom Cruise's Digger Faces $245 Million Loss as Box Office Slumps

Two major Hollywood releases have struggled to attract moviegoers, with Tom Cruise's satirical film Digger facing a potential $245 million loss and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning recording weak opening-weekend sales. According to BBC reporting published October 12, 2026, Digger has collected approximately $35 million worldwide despite an estimated $280 million production and marketing budget.

Digger's box office revenue fell by about 60% during its second weekend, raising concerns about its commercial prospects. Industry publication Variety projects that the film will finish its theatrical run with approximately $50 million in worldwide ticket sales.

Variety estimates that Digger would need to generate around $350 million to break even, accounting for production, marketing, cinema revenue shares and a potential awards campaign. A Warner Bros spokesperson offered a lower estimate, telling Variety that the break-even figure was $300 million.

The financial outlook contrasts with the commercial success of Cruise's recent franchise installments, including Top Gun and Mission: Impossible. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Digger uses satire to explore climate change, corporate power and propaganda.

Despite the disappointing reception, Cruise said last week that he did not evaluate his filmmaking decisions primarily through opening-weekend revenue.

He said he "never thought of movies when I'm making them [in terms of] opening weekend," adding that he wanted to create films that "hopefully will translate, last and evolve".

Iñárritu developed the idea for Digger after filming The Revenant in 2015. The project has been in development since 2017 and experienced repeated production setbacks, according to an October 5 report by The New York Times.

The director acknowledged the project's difficulties while explaining his willingness to pursue ambitious filmmaking.

"Three times the film collapsed; I lost three years of my life," Iñárritu said.

He also described his approach to filmmaking as a deliberate embrace of creative risk.

"The movie is not perfect," Iñárritu said. "I like taking risks."

Meanwhile, The Social Reckoning, a sequel to the Oscar-winning The Social Network, earned approximately $5.5 million in the United States and $9 million worldwide during its opening weekend, according to the BBC.

The domestic result fell well below the $22 million opening weekend recorded by its predecessor in 2010, although that comparison does not account for inflation. The new film stars Mikey Madison, Jeremy Strong and Jeremy Allen White.

The Social Reckoning dramatizes the story of Facebook engineer Frances Haugen, who leaked internal company documents to a reporter after becoming concerned about the company's practices.

The film also faced competition from horror movie Other Mommy, psychological thriller Verity, video game adaptation Resident Evil and Brad Pitt's wilderness thriller Heart of the Beast, all of which ranked ahead of it at the US box office.