LOS ANGELES: The Tom Cruise eco-satire "Digger," a movie that was supposed to herald the action hero's return to serious acting, has bombed at the box office, with industry insiders predicting it could lose a quarter of a billion dollars.
The Alejandro Inarritu comedy, featuring Cruise as an eccentric oil baron who must fix the problem he has helped create, was panned by critics and has left audiences cold, leaving studio Warner Bros with a big balance sheet hole just as a merger with Paramount Skydance closes.
After two weeks in theaters, the film has grossed just US$14.4 million in North America and US$35.3 million globally - tiny numbers for a big-budget movie that points to cumulative losses in the region of $245 million.
"Financially it has to be considered a disaster," Christopher Rosen of Hollywood trade publication The Ankler told AFP.
"It cost anywhere from US$160 million to US$180 million - that's even before marketing - and it's made relatively nothing at the box office."
Marketing for a movie like "Digger" can cost up to US$100 million.
Daniel Loria of Boxoffice Pro noted that the film was greenlit under the tenure of outgoing Warner Bros. executives Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, who made a name for themselves by giving filmmakers the resources and studio budgets to create original, innovative movies.
"Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't," he said.
As an art-house film that satirises American culture through the lens of a non-American like Inarritu, "Digger" was perhaps destined to be a heavy lift.
"This movie was never going to get a general audience to get behind it, right? I don't think it was ever designed like that," said Loria.
"The film takes every opportunity to push the audience in uncomfortable directions.
"American audiences don't have the easiest time accepting films that criticise American culture, especially when they're made by foreigners."
A potential mismatch
The presence of Cruise - a man sometimes credited with rescuing the box office after its pandemic slump with "Top Gun: Maverick" - was always going to make the film stand out.
"You've got arguably the biggest movie star in the world (who) was literally everywhere for this movie," said Paul Dergarabedian, a market analyst at Rentrak.
"He was so excited about this movie and working with Alejandro Inarritu.
"By virtue of Tom Cruise's star power, there was a spotlight on this movie. Anything he does is going to be under a microscope."
The size of Cruise's star in the movie firmament makes the comparison even less flattering: "Digger" was never going to be in the same ballpark as the multi-billion dollar "Mission: Impossible" franchise.
But the film's box office does align with the kind of film that Inarritu makes, said Loria.
His movies "aren't really too worried about their box office total; they're worried about having an artistic endeavor behind" them.
That makes "Digger" something of a mismatch, said Loria.
"Unfortunately, I think this was marketed as a general audience movie, when at heart, this is an art-house film."