Tom Cruise's new movie Digger flops at box office with poor opening weekend

Movie star Tom Cruise has suffered one of the worst debuts of his career, with his new movie Digger flopping at the box office during its opening weekend.

Digger finished in fifth place at the North American box office with $US8 million ($11.5 million).

This was against a production budget of a reported $US125 million ($179.7 million) prior to marketing costs, which are believed to have been about $US100 million ($143.8 million).

Worldwide, the film pulled in $US20 million ($28.7 million), including $US12 million ($17.2 million) internationally.

Cruise is unrecognisable in the movie, which is a satire about a powerful oil tycoon whose reckless drilling triggers an environmental disaster.

It is directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro G Iñárritu and distributed by Warner Bros Pictures.

The abysmal opening comes just as Paramount Skydance is closing its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery after the US justice department greenlit the merger.

Cruise has long been one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood and won an Honorary Oscar in 2025 for his extraordinary contributions to cinema.

He has spent most of the last decade as a top action hero starring in Mission: Impossible movies and Top Gun: Maverick.

The 64-year-old's last major box-office disappointment was 2017's The Mummy, which grossed $US409.2 million ($588.5 million) worldwide on a $US195 million ($280.4 million) budget.

Digger was both panned and lauded by critics, with some calling it a strained climate change farce.

To help sell the film, Cruise granted his first lengthy magazine interview in years.

Verity comes in at #1

Number one at the box office was Amazon MGM Studio's Verity, adapted from a Colleen Hoover novel.

It is about a struggling author hired as a ghostwriter for a publishing sensation under eerie circumstances and stars Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett.

It is directed by Michael Showalter.

It debuted with $US32.6 million ($46.8 million) in North America and was number one in Australia with $US3.1 million ($4.4 million), according to Box Office Mojo.

Final weekend box office figures are yet to be released, but below is what Rentrak has recorded so far in US and Canadian theatres.

1. Verity, $US32.6 million.