Tom Cruise's latest movie, Digger, from filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu, opened with around $8million in the US this weekend, marking Cruise's lowest box-office opening in nearly 20 years. With a budget reportedly in the range of $140-180million, Digger is categorically a bomb.
Critical and audience reception
The film proved divisive with critics, holding a 51% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Metro's Tom Percival awarded the film just two stars.
Audiences have categorically rejected this new shift from Cruise, and it could put him off from making more big creative swings in the future.
Cruise's career trajectory
Cruise has largely kept his movie star credentials bright with action-oriented franchise movies of late, including the Mission: Impossible entries and the billion-dollar hit Top Gun: Maverick. Audiences are much more accustomed to seeing Cruise dangle from an aeroplane than covered in prosthetics and giving himself fully to a filmmaker's vision.
At 64 years of age, Digger signified him acknowledging that he can't keep doing the action hero thing forever. The film sees him flexing more of the character actor muscles he used to deploy earlier in his career with the likes of Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia.
What's next for Cruise
His next movie has already been announced: the legacy sequel Days of Thunder 2, co-starring Anne Hathaway. He will then more than likely move on to the in-development Top Gun 3 shortly after.
There's also still a narrative where Digger continues to be a player in the awards season and nabs him an Oscar nomination, which would be deemed a far greater mark of success than the box-office takings. But should Digger simply be buried across the board, one can't help but think Cruise will decide to play it much safer in the latter stage of his career.
Digger is out in cinemas now.
