Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "Digger" dropped 59% on Monday, making only $760K. It's already out of the $1M club. I'm in no way celebrating this; it's a damn near tragic fate that awaits this film.
Brace yourselves. According to THR, "Digger" is now projected to lose Warner Bros. around $200M. That's not a typo. And since I believe this to be a slight lowball, it may end up as one of the biggest money losers of all time.
The numbers are ugly: an $8M domestic opening and barely $2M worldwide, against a production budget reportedly north of $160M. On top of that, Warner Bros. apparently spent roughly $100M marketing the thing.
It gets worse. The film's Hong Kong and Macau release was abruptly pulled just before it was set to open on October 2. Every screening disappeared from theater websites, with local reports pointing to "sensitive content" and political satire. Nobody has officially explained why.
Now here's Cruise on Kevin McCarthy's podcast (via Variety), saying he never goes into a movie thinking about opening weekend. He talked about the '80s and '90s, when films like "Rain Man" played in theaters for a year. "I feel very much like we're going to make something that is a lasting piece of cinema," he said.
Movies transcend… you just hope you can make a film that can last. 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. 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.
It's a lovely sentiment, and there's some truth in it. But the era Cruise is nostalgic for isn't coming back. Movies don't play for a year anymore. They get a few weeks in theaters before heading to PVOD, and an $8M opening all but guarantees an exit from most multiplexes within a month. It's also worth remembering that "Rain Man" was the highest-grossing film of 1988.
To be fair, "Digger" could still get a second life. Plenty of films now considered classics, from "Blade Runner" to "The Big Lebowski" to "Fight Club," stumbled with critics and audiences before being rediscovered.
While we're at it, Cruise's work in "Digger" is easily one of the best performances of his career, and it belongs in his top 10 alongside "Magnolia," "Collateral," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Jerry Maguire," "Eyes Wide Shut," and, yes, "Tropic Thunder."
What an odd pairing, and yet so much potential. Focus Features has picked up worldwide rights to "Outside Man," the latest from Oscar-winning filmmaker Brian Helgeland, who will write and direct.