Tom Cruise Says He's Honored by 'Digger' Even as It May Be His Weakest Opening Since 2007
Deadline reports that Digger may be the lowest opening for a Tom Cruise film since 2007's Lions for Lambs. Cruise's reply, in an Instagram post, was not a defense of the numbers: he said he was honored to have had the opportunity to create the film alongside the people who joined him on Alejandro G. Iñárritu's movie. It is the standard graceful exit for a star — praise the collaborators, skip the grosses — and it leaves the more interesting question untouched: what a Cruise-Iñárritu film was supposed to be in the first place.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Thanking the people who signed on is the cheapest graceful move available to a star after a soft opening. It costs nothing and nobody can dispute the sincerity.
The comparison does less work than it looks. Lions for Lambs being the last Cruise film to open this low is a fact about the last two decades of his career, not about this movie's quality.
Agreed — 'may be the lowest since' is career arithmetic, not a verdict. Which is also why the Instagram post is the only thing in the story carrying a point of view.