Digger Opens to an Estimated $8M, Cruise's Lowest Wide Debut Since 2007

Digger opened to an estimated $8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $20 million worldwide, according to The Numbers and Associated Press. The Alejandro G. Iñárritu film’s debut is Tom Cruise’s lowest wide domestic opening since Lions for Lambs in 2007, TheWrap reports.

These are Sunday estimates for October 2–4, rather than final opening-weekend actuals. AP says the final domestic figures will be released Monday, so the totals may move as theaters finish reporting.

How much did Digger make worldwide?

The Numbers currently lists the following opening figures:

The international and domestic estimates add to the reported worldwide total. The Numbers also lists 3,321 opening theaters in North America. That makes this a wide-release comparison: the $8 million figure is not the result of a small initial rollout.

Why the Tom Cruise comparison stops at 2007

TheWrap identifies Lions for Lambs as Cruise’s previous comparable low. Box Office Mojo’s release record puts that film’s November 9–11, 2007 domestic opening at $6,702,434 from 2,215 theaters.

The milestone concerns wide domestic opening weekends. It does not establish that Digger is Cruise’s lowest-grossing film across its entire run, and it does not compare ticket admissions or inflation-adjusted earnings.

Verity wins the weekend

Verity led the domestic chart with an estimated $32.6 million from 3,510 locations, according to TheWrap. Both films opened on October 2; Verity’s domestic estimate is just over four times Digger’s.

That is a comparison of their first three days in the same market, rather than a prediction of either film’s eventual worldwide total.

Digger’s budget is reported, not studio-confirmed

TheWrap puts the production budget at at least $125 million, with some reporting around $160 million. Those are reported costs, not a final accounting published by the studio.

The opening is small against that reported production scale, but ticket-sales gross cannot be read as the studio’s retained revenue. Marketing costs, distribution terms and later revenue are also needed to assess profitability; the opening figures alone do not settle the lifetime financial result.

For another example of estimates being revised, see our coverage of Resident Evil’s final domestic opening. This weekend also brought a separate worldwide milestone for Avengers: Endgame Encore. Find further theatrical news in Movies.

Hero photograph: Tom Cruise at Cannes in 2025 by Gabriel Hutchinson / WikiPortraits, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and converted to WebP without additional cropping. The adapted hero image and its responsive derivatives are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.