Tom Cruise's latest film, Digger, is projected to lose £185 million ($245 million), prompting many Hollywood executives to privately question whether this marks the end of his career as a superstar. The dark comedy, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, has become the biggest box office failure of Cruise's career.
Box Office Disaster
Digger earned a dismal $8 million at the US box office in its opening week, and barely $12 million in the 73 other countries when it debuted earlier this month. In the UK, the film opened an unthinkable fourth at the box office, with £1.1 million.
Last weekend, the situation worsened. Digger was projected to earn only $3.2 million in America from 3,321 cinemas, a stomach-churning 60% plunge in revenue. Overseas, the box office takings fell 33% to $8 million.
Critical Backlash
The film has also faced scathing reviews. The Boston Globe declared it "The worst movie of Tom Cruise's career." The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "it's difficult to imagine mainstream audiences ever wanting to be a part of this bludgeoning ordeal." The New York Post branded it Cruise's "first real stinker in nearly ten years," while The Austin Chronicle in Texas likened Digger to "a burning bag of dog poop".
Warner Bros responded by issuing a promotional video highlighting some of the negative reviews, intercut with a clip of Cruise in character from the film, raging: "F**k those people!" The movie did have its admirers, with The London Evening Standard calling it: "audacious, risky, terrific fun".
A Bid for Oscar Glory
Digger was widely viewed as Cruise's most blatant bid for an Academy Award for acting, inspired by the acclaim he won for his cameo playing Les Grossman, a fat, balding film executive in 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder. Cruise, who has spent a lifetime honing his body, is buried beneath a blubbery fat suit in the film, his full head of lustrous hair concealed beneath a bald cap with tufts of flyaway grey tresses.
"It took all of my knowledge, from all the years of every film I made, to be able to play this character and fulfil the ambition of this movie," he said. Early Digger trailers featuring Cruise's past hits only highlighted his desperation. "It felt like they were trying too hard to get Tom a nomination," said Hollywood marketing veteran Dennis Rice.
Career Crossroads
Digger broke Cruise's Guinness World Record streak of 11 consecutive films earning more than $100 million (£75 million), and called his career future into question. Cruise, who turns 65 next year, could no longer pull audiences into cinemas based on his star power alone. It may be the franchises themselves – the speeding jets, the crashing cars, the ever-bigger explosions, and the perilous stunts that Cruise insists on performing himself – that are the true stars of his action films, with Cruise just along for the ride.
Several stars leapt to his defence. Anne Hathaway, who has signed to co-star opposite Cruise in a sequel to his 1990 car racing drama Days of Thunder, gave Digger a "10/10", calling it "smart and trippy and aggressive and funny and ambitious". Mandy Patinkin called the film an "instant classic," and Glenn Powell praised Digger for its "visionary spectacle, fearless performances". Jane Fonda called the role "a big, brave risk for him… and he was very good in it", while Ron Howard said: "Outstanding performance, Tom."
Yet Scottish star John Hannah, who appeared in 1999 blockbuster The Mummy, confessed that he walked out of a screening of Digger. "I don't know what they were thinking there," he said. "It was a mess."
Cruise is not filming at present, and producers are hoping that he can cling on to the A-list by reprising former winning roles. In addition to the Days of Thunder sequel, he is scheduled to shoot a sequel to 2014 sci-fi action movie Edge of Tomorrow, and a script is in development for Top Gun 3. All are set for release after 2028 when Cruise will be 66 years old.
His next movie is Broadsword, a Second World War thriller filmed last year in England and France, set for release in 2027, in which he plays a US spy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash and must fight through enemy territory to complete his mission. It could easily serve as a metaphor for Cruise, as his career plane appears to have crashed, and he must battle through enemy critics and indifferent audiences if he lives to film another movie.
