Tom Cruise signs autographs at the premiere of his $125 million movie. Then the film loses $150 million and becomes the biggest flop of his career

The film Digger has officially opened to a disastrous $8 million, marking a historic low point for Tom Cruise and cementing the project as a massive financial failure, Indiewire reports. This performance is particularly jarring when you consider the production cost of $125 million, though industry sources suggest the true price tag sits between $160 million and $180 million. With a global haul of only $20 million from 74 markets, the film is staring down a loss of $150 million or more.

Cruise was seen on Monday signing autographs and posing for photos at The Directors Village in Los Angeles. He appeared confident, even though the film faced heavy criticism for being too dark and weird. Despite his promotional efforts, including appearances with the Kelce brothers and a dance through a spirit tunnel on the Jennifer Hudson show, the audience simply didn’t show up.

The film performed significantly worse than other recent releases. It was outgrossed by the Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity, which brought in $32.6 million, and even trailed behind holdovers like Resident Evil and Primetime. While Cruise has experienced flops before, such as The Mummy, which lost $95 million, Digger is already being compared to legendary box office bombs like John Carter and The Lone Ranger.

This is a far cry from the usual success associated with a Cruise lead

The financial fallout is hitting the studio leadership hard as well. Warner Bros. film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were already informed by new owner David Ellison that they would not be continuing in their roles once Skydance assumes control and merges the studio with Paramount. The massive losses from Digger appear to have accelerated a shift in strategy. It seems the era of auteur-friendly budgets for directors like Alejandro González Iñárritu and Maggie Gyllenhaal is coming to an end.

While De Luca and Abdy had some successes, such as the hit film Sinners, their recent ambitious gambits have struggled to turn a profit. The Bride! and Digger are currently among the biggest money losers of the decade. This shift toward more commercially predictable content, like a potential Days of Thunder 2, is expected to be the new direction under Ellison. One Paramount executive noted the difference in priorities, stating, “We don’t lose $100 million to win Best Picture.”

For cinephiles, this change might be disappointing. Digger was a bold, experimental project that featured a performance from Cruise that deviated from his typical action hero persona. He has expressed support for the upcoming merger, however. During an interview with Pat McAfee, Cruise described the union of Warner Bros. and Paramount as a move toward abundance.

“They’re going to deliver 30 movies. It’s a community to me. It’s not an industry. The people in these studios are not just people in the studios, they’re my family,” Cruise told McAfee. “I know we’re going to get those 30 movies. I want us all to come together as a community to help make those 30 movies. It’s not just going to be Paramount doing it. Everyone’s going to need all the help of every artist to be able to do it.”

As for the departing studio chiefs, the transition has not been entirely smooth. When Ellison delivered the news to Abdy and De Luca, the response was sharp. Abdy reportedly told Ellison, “Good luck to you. I left you 39 movies.”