Tom Cruise's "Digger," Alejandro G. Iñárritu's satirical black comedy about an oil tycoon whose malfunctioning Antarctica drilling rig sends an ice cap hurtling toward Europe, opened to $8 million in North America and $20 million worldwide, and Cruise said in a now-viral podcast interview that he is not making movies for "opening weekend," per Variety.
The math was public before the film opened. A production budget north of $160 million, a $100 million marketing budget, and roughly $350 million worldwide to break even. The opening delivered $20 million of that. That is not a rough weekend, that is a hole in the floor, and the studio is already using the word "theatrically," which is the industry's way of saying it will explain the number later.
The defense is Blade Runner. Cruise and Iñárritu remember Ridley Scott's masterpiece that "everybody killed" at its opening and cite it as proof a film can last, with "Rain Man" and "Born on the Fourth of July" named as the movies that "would just play and play for a year." The problem with the Blade Runner precedent is that it is about a film that was panned and still had an audience. "Digger" is not being panned in the rewatchable way, it is being abandoned. A film that needs the Blade Runner defense already lost the Blade Runner argument.
The timing is the footnote. "Digger" was Warner Bros.' last release before the Paramount merger closed, so the loss lands in the new company's first ledger, a welcome gift from the old studio's biggest star. Meanwhile Iñárritu is out defending the film from the scathing reviews, which is the oldest move in the business: when the audience leaves, the director starts explaining what the audience missed.
YOUR TURN: Is "it will age well" a business plan or an epitaph, and does a movie have to make money while it is still new?
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