Media365
4 min readMumbaiOct 4, 2026 04:01 PM IST
Digger box office collection day 2: Alejandro Inarritu’s satire Digger, starring an unrecognisable Tom Cruise as a greedy oil tycoon, has failed to meet expectations at the box office, both in North America and at the Indian box office. Even though it was quite a swing for the A-lister, the film has managed to open at only a minor fraction of the final instalment of his blockbuster spy thriller franchise Mission: Impossible from last year.
Digger domestic box office collection
Digger opened in North America this past Friday at just $3.3 million, including paid preview shows from Thursday, from 3300 screens. Given its current momentum, it’s likely to score only $8 million during its opening weekend domestically. That figure is far below the range predicted by production house Warner Bros — $12 million to $15 million.
This makes Digger Tom Cruise’s lowest North America opening weekend in 19 years, the last one being Robert Redford’s 2007 war drama Lions for Lambs, as per The Hollywood Reporter. That movie, also starring Redford and Meryl Streep, opened at $6.7 million, and went on to earn $64.8 million during its lifetime. However, the budget of that film was far less, at $35 million.
On the other hand, Digger has been made and mounted on a massive budget of $125 million. Compared to that, Cruise’s last release from 2025 — Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning — was made on a budget of $300 million to $400 million, but it opened at $64 million, and went on to amass $599 million during its lifetime.
The reasons behind Tom Cruise registering his lowest opening weekend in almost two decades could be attributed to the polarizing reviews of Digger, as well as Cruise trading his action superstar persona for the role of a potbellied, 65-year-old oil tycoon. The actor will now return to his familiar turf — the second instalment of his popular action franchise, Days of Thunder, slated to release in cinemas in 2028.
In fact, Michael Showalter’s erotic psychological thriller Verity, starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, is estimated to emerge as the highest grossing Hollywood film at the North America box office this weekend. It opened at $15.1 million on Friday (including Thursday previews), and is likely to score an opening weekend of $33.6 million from 3510 screens, more than four times than that of Digger.
Digger India box office collection
Even in India, Digger has managed to open at only a small fraction of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. On its first Saturday (day 2), the film earned only Rs 45 lakh from 468 screens, an over 30% drop from its opening day collection of Rs 65 lakh from 579 screens. After two days, the Tom Cruise-starrer has managed to earn only Rs 1.30 crore gross and Rs 1.10 crore net at the India box office, as per Sacnilk.
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This figure pales in comparison to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which earned Rs 33.50 crore from over 9,000 screens within its first two days at the India box office last year. The low box office opening of Digger at the India box office could also be owing to a major clash with an Indian tentpole release, Abhishek Pathak’s crime thriller Drishyam 3. The Ajay Devgn-starrer amassed over 115 crore from over 16,000 screens in the first two days of its domestic box office run.
Also Read: Neem Karoli Baba film Hanuman Ansh refuses to bow to Drishyam 3, crosses Rs 419 crore mark
Digger revolves around the misadventures of a third-generation American oil tycoon, which set off an impending calamity in Europe. That pushes the dictatorial US President and the White House, who’ve been in bed with the titular character of Digger Rockwell, towards damage control. The movie also stars Riz Ahmed, Sandra Huller, John Goodman, and Jesse Plemons among others.
