Stars rally behind Cruise's Digger after US$8 million opening

Anne Hathaway, Jane Fonda, Guillermo del Toro, Mandy Patinkin and Glen Powell have spoken up for Tom Cruise's Digger after a quiet start at the box office. The film opened to US$8 million domestically, the United States and Canada, and US$20 million globally, in figures reported on 9 October 2026 by Variety. Support for the film then spread across social media.

Digger is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and stars Cruise as oil tycoon Digger Rockwell. The part was billed as Cruise's first non-action role in nearly a decade, according to the same report. The film's official account calls it "a comedy of catastrophic proportions" and says it is now playing in theatres and IMAX, the large-screen format.

The maths are tough. The production budget sits between US$160 million and US$180 million, with a further US$100 million spent on marketing. That means the film would need about US$350 million worldwide to break even in theatres, where ticket sales cover costs, with a projected theatrical loss of US$150 million to US$200 million, as reported by Variety.

Hathaway gave the film 10/10 in her review on Letterboxd, the film-logging site. Patinkin called it an "instant classic" and "one of the greatest pieces of film I have ever seen in my entire life." Fonda urged Cruise and Iñárritu to "keep being brave."

Del Toro was the most blunt. "Love the arts. Fuck the charts," he wrote on X.

The same weekend brought a stronger debut elsewhere. Verity took US$32 million on its opening weekend, according to Variety. That contrast left Digger well behind the weekend's pace-setter.

For fans, this means two stories are running at once. The ticket counts point one way. The public backing from fellow actors and directors points the other.