Tom Cruise's Digger Flops as Avengers: Endgame Reclaims the Title of Highest Grossing Movie of All Time

Published 5 October 2026. Words like "tonight" or "next week" refer to that date.

It is double trouble for Hollywood this weekend. Tom Cruise's Digger has collapsed at the box office, while Avengers: Endgame, that movie from before the pandemic when things were really going well for Hollywood, is now back to being the highest grossing movie of all time. Next weekend isn't looking much better, so Hollywood is hoping and praying that the two weekends after that will get things back on track.

Avengers: Endgame Is Back on Top, but the Holiday Bets Look Risky

Endgame's return to the top is pretty good for Marvel. They now hold both the highest grossing worldwide movie of all time and the highest grossing domestic movie of all time, although they share that second one with Sony. Endgame is locked in a battle of rereleases with fellow Disney movie Avatar, the first one, which retook the top spot back in 2022 with its rerelease right before The Way of Water came out. Now Endgame is back on top.

Just like Nolan and Spidey this summer, Hollywood is now betting heavily on Avengers and Dune to be the next sensation this holiday season. I know everybody wants to be the new Barbenheimer, but The Odyssey and Spider-Man came out two weeks apart, and I think that was vital to both of their successes. With two movies on the same day, especially going after a similar audience, I'm still worried. Hollywood still feels both might overperform, and the holidays are a long season that runs pretty much through January, with plenty of smaller movies lying in wait to capitalize on that downtime. But as we found out this weekend, and considering Warner Bros. is having truly an awful year, things may not go the way Hollywood expects.

Verity is not the movie Amazon hoped it had, but at least it's still performing. Digger, though, is another story. This is coming from someone who absolutely loved the movie: "When I put my business hat on, it's indefensible."

Digger's Trouble Began at the First Press Screenings on September 19

While this collapse happened very quickly, it didn't come out of nowhere. It started on Saturday, September 19, now an infamous date in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's career, potentially Tom Cruise's, and certainly for Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. That was the date of the very first press screenings for Digger. Even though everybody was under strict embargo, including on social media, some top Hollywood trades pulled Cruise and the movie from their Oscar shortlists, making Warner Bros. very angry.

This past Tuesday the review embargo lifted. The Rotten Tomatoes score wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as those early murmurs suggested. We thought it might land in the 20s or 30s, and it settled at about 50%. That gave Warner Bros. something to work with: it's split down the middle, you decide, go see it anyway. Rotten Tomatoes offers no room for nuance, but the studio was making a delicious Bloody Mary out of squished tomatoes.

Things got more interesting on Friday when the Rotten Tomatoes audience score materialized and it was fresh. Not amazing, but fresh. We started to think maybe we'd have a Joker on our hands, where critics hate it, audiences rally behind it, the tide turns, it wins Oscars anyway and makes a lot of money. Digger was tracking pretty poorly, but it seemed like things might be turning around. Then, just two days later, this became a disaster of Digger proportions.

The C+ CinemaScore Hurts Digger's Oscar Hopes More Than Anything

I actually think the worst thing that's happened is the C+ CinemaScore. We knew the box office was pretty much done for on Thursday night, particularly given the $160 million budget. But C+ kind of ruins its Oscar chances as well, because Joker at least got a B+. Even if awards voters start to come around on the film, how do you vote for a movie with a C+ CinemaScore? The Oscars are already bleeding audience as it is. They don't need to make themselves look like a total joke by giving Best Picture to a movie with a C+ CinemaScore.

So how did Birdman do it? It was a very quirky movie without a great audience score, and it won the Best Picture Oscar in 2015. But it had very strong support from critics, and it had no CinemaScore at all because it opened in limited release. If your movie opens limited, even if it eventually goes wide, you don't get one. Birdman went even further: it never even hit a thousand theaters until the weekend after the Oscars, which back then were held at the end of February instead of late March, which is the better date for the Oscars.

Why not do the same with Digger? Digger has a big twist, and without a wide release that twist would have been ruined. But seeing how things unfolded, perhaps limited release would have been the better approach. The studio could have been freed up to advertise the movie more correctly. A lot of you asked what this movie is even about, because the campaign had both arms tied behind its back in many ways.

A Warner Bros. Spot Blamed American Critics and Audiences

As Digger crumbled over the weekend, it went full Digger in a shocking case of real life imitating absurdist art. On Saturday, somebody in the Warner Bros. marketing department, seeing the movie crumble and perhaps feeling down about Skydance purchasing the studio and not knowing their fate in the coming months or even weeks, put out a spot saying American critics and audiences hate Digger because it's too close to home and they aren't cool enough to get it, while critics and audiences outside America love it because they're sophisticated enough to take the joke.

When I first saw this, I wondered what the strategy was. To sweep the BAFTAs? Here's what I think it's doing. Some American critics like myself and some American audiences truly love Digger and have been trying to champion it, so this is a kick in the face. Plus, Digger's overseas numbers aren't any better. If it were doing big business overseas, I might understand the spot, but it's not. Talk about cherry picking to spin a narrative, Digger style.

And why tick off the biggest movie market in the world? I don't think Digger is going to play in China, the other big market. The domestic box office is North America, but America is the bulk of that business, and with a $160 million movie you literally cannot afford to tick off America. This spot and the C+ CinemaScore are, I think, the final nails in the coffin, although there are so many nails it's already dead.

Who Is Digger For?

When you're pitching a movie, someone needs to ask who it is for, ideally the person pitching, but otherwise the buyer. Someone might counter that Digger is a bold statement, not entertainment. But if nobody goes to see the movie, did you even make a bold statement? And this is a real problem for Digger.

It's certainly not for the far left, since it calls them ineffective and performative and dares to be negative about their beloved art. On the flip side, I won't get into it in detail, but President Thompson has a religious adviser who ends up getting smacked around. There goes any hope of the far right liking it. The moderates are the biggest group but also the quietest, so no one is championing the film online. Maybe they'd all buy tickets anyway.

But then the movie points the finger directly at the audience and says how awful your life is right now is your own fault. Again, I like this about the movie, but I can see what an absolute disaster it is from a business perspective. "Who's going to pay to have that done to them?"

David Ellison Shows Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy the Door

This happened on the weekend David Ellison announced the deal was done for him to control Paramount and Warner Bros. It was a fitting weekend for De Luca and Abdy to be callously shown the door, after hearing about their dismissal for weeks via town gossip and then the press, only for Ellison to make it official with a tense exchange heading into the weekend.

Was 2025 an incredible year for them? It sure was, as many people online are pointing out, but you're only as good as your most recent performance. In 2026, not a single Warner Bros. release has hit $100 million domestic. In 2025 the studio had an unprecedented seven movie streak of $50 million plus openings; this year it hasn't opened a single movie above $40 million. Some flops were super expensive: Supergirl cost $170 million, The Bride $90 million and Digger $160 million, before advertising. Even One Battle After Another, which won Best Picture, was a $100 million theatrical loss.

Ellison has never been big on awards, and with $77 billion in debt he doesn't want to and can't afford these kinds of losses. It's unfortunate, and luckily Hollywood is a town where one day you're down and the next you're up, but I think you can understand this business decision.

Tom Cruise's Relationship With Ellison Looks Awkward

Ellison has been in business with Cruise for a long time. Skydance, mainly a film finance company, has financed the Mission: Impossible movies since Ghost Protocol and financed Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise's first billion dollar movie. Rumor has it the two already had a minor falling out when Cruise ran way over budget on the last two Mission: Impossible movies and Ellison stepped in to rein him in financially, which really angered Cruise. Those two movies did not do well, the second particularly poorly.

With Maverick it seemed Cruise had finally overcome his couch jumping incident, which created quite a dry spell, and he was once again America's favorite movie star. With Top Gun: Maverick, everyone loved it, liberals and conservatives. Now the pendulum seems to have swung back. His interviews for Digger, especially with GQ, reminded everyone that Cruise is unusual. And one has to wonder how Ellison feels about a movie with very harsh things to say about business and government being intertwined and how wealthy families hold on to power. Awkward.

Cruise already has a publicly announced Days of Thunder sequel with Ellison and the director of Skydance's Mr. Irrelevant, one of the only movies to get an almost perfect test screening score, with a perfect score among female audiences. I'd wager Ellison is none too pleased that Cruise might have lost conservative audiences who will be vital to Days of Thunder 2. That sequel also co-stars Anne Hathaway, who appears in the other rough movie of the weekend.

Verity Is Number One, and Anne Hathaway's Year Stays Strong

Verity isn't a total disaster, and thankfully it's standing next to Digger. How big a disaster can a movie be if it's number one both domestic and worldwide? I'm sure Hollywood is thinking it might have had another It Ends With Us with a director experienced in sexy thrillers, though that one imploded over behind the scenes drama. Is Colleen Hoover cursed? Verity still proves women will show up in droves for the right movie. It's unlikely to be another Housemaid, a better comp even though both are from the same author; The Housemaid also had weak scores but a better CinemaScore. I think Verity will be a muted Housemaid and do well enough on digital down the line.

With this, Materialists and a solid SNL turn last night, Dakota Johnson has made Madame Web a distant memory. This caps a very good year for Hathaway, with only one misfire, so no wonder she booked Days of Thunder 2, though maybe now she's wondering if she still wants it. She also has another Princess Diaries movie lined up and is about to have her baby. She cleverly disappeared from social media over the weekend because, like Margot Robbie and Zendaya, she realizes audiences need a little bit of a break, but she has already started her Oscar campaign for The Odyssey, and many people think she could win her second Oscar.

The Odyssey Loses IMAX, While Resident Evil Holds

With Digger taking over IMAX screens, The Odyssey suffered its biggest drop yet and fell out of the top 10. But Digger is doing so poorly I wouldn't be surprised if The Odyssey gets one last IMAX weekend before Street Fighter. Oppenheimer didn't go to digital until November, a clever move by Universal that kept chatter going as awards season heated up, and I bet The Odyssey won't be on digital for another month. Some of us like Digger more than The Odyssey, but with that C+, I think it's over for Digger. Maybe the Golden Globes.

With Digger dead on arrival, Resident Evil held very nicely in its third weekend at number two. At $245 million worldwide, it's the second highest grossing movie in the franchise, and at the time it still had China and Japan to come, with China opening the next day and Japan that Friday, so it looked set to become the franchise's top film. Let's see if Sony can convince Zach Cregger to come back after The Flood, his original science fiction movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and produced by Steven Spielberg. I really think Sony needs him. It cost $20 million to get him the first time. I'd pay him, maybe $30 million, with significant backend participation.

Heart of the Beast Impresses as Endgame and Spider-Man Fade

Of last weekend's new releases, Heart of the Beast's hold is the most impressive, suggesting Ellison's vision for Paramount, and maybe Warner Bros., might just work. I think the new Paramount will borrow a little bit from the Angel Studios playbook, with Netflix's Mosquito Bowl kind of doing the same thing. Forgotten Island had the same hold at a lower level, and both should do extremely well on digital. Prime Time dropped more steeply, but its bigger problem is how quickly it's fading; it didn't resonate the way the trailer did. If Robert Pattinson gets nominations, I think it'll be for The Odyssey, but Prime Time helps, since voters factor in recent work. Matthew McConaughey had Dallas Buyers Club plus True Detective airing, and I think that one two punch won him the Oscar.

Endgame dropped significantly, no surprise. It was an advertising move that got extra scenes out there, built excitement for Doomsday and let Marvel flex. Spider-Man is about to leave the top 10 just as it hits digital Tuesday.

Lanterns Still Misses Nielsen's Overall Chart

Nielsen's numbers for the week of September 14 show Lanterns still can't break onto the overall chart. The listing says six episodes, but since it drops Sunday night it's really five. It's still weird, given the headlines HBO has been putting out. The finale is tonight, and Warner Bros. didn't send it to press, so I haven't seen leaks. I hope they stick the landing.

Prime Video has a one two punch with Reacher and its spinoff Neagley, with Ryan Murphy's latest Monster anthology sandwiched between them. Reacher is only on season four and I think is greenlit through season six. Big Bang Theory, Lioness and Ted Lasso are going strong, and Netflix revived Major Crimes, a 2012 TNT spinoff of The Closer. Movies are weak, with Tyler Perry leading with a movie he made in four days.

Ryan Murphy's Latest Monster Gets a Soft Start on Netflix

Globally, Murphy's latest is a soft number one and the weakest first full week for a Monster series to date. Is it the female serial killer, or lost momentum? I think the new trend toward Avengers style serial killers is kind of distasteful, and people liked these partly because they seemed based on fact, which they're moving away from. I think some fans have lost faith in Murphy. I skipped this one because I thought the Ed Gein season was so bad I dropped out of the first episode after loving the Menendez one. Netflix's reality show Wonka's The Golden Ticket is a distant second. Movies also have a soft number one, and you can see why Netflix is moving aggressively into theatrical. KPop Demon Hunters was its last huge hit, last year, and a total accident, just like Frozen.

Coyote vs. Acme and The Invite Thrive on Digital

On Apple's charts, Coyote vs. Acme continues to be a victory for the little guy, and I think there's an HBO show there. The Invite is going strong, and as I predicted, it's helping its awards chances, with Olivia Wilde a frontrunner for Best Actress. That says a lot about how hard it is to fill female categories. She's good, but I don't think she's Oscar worthy good. Still, I'm impressed she turned things around. I think she never upset anyone within Hollywood, the media or critics, and seems to have navigated it well. The Uprising isn't doing as well, Obsession remains, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has huge presales, and Apple has all five Pirates of the Caribbean movies for $20.

What's Coming Next Week, From Matchbox to Avatar: Seven Havens

Next weekend might be iffy too. Other Mommy and The Social Reckoning open, a Mahershala Ali film goes wide, and other awards hopefuls open limited. Tuesday brings Spider-Man: Brand New Day, A24's Onslaught and Insidious: Out of the Further to digital. Netflix has Ben Affleck's Animals on Friday, and Apple TV has Mattel's Matchbox with John Cena, a Skydance movie it financed and produced. Ellison just lured away Mattel's CEO to join his new mega studio. A business of relationships indeed.

Family Guy has a Halloween special on Hulu Monday. Wednesday, Prime Video drops all of Carrie, more a witchy X-Men than scary, and I enjoyed it. Thursday brings a new Josh Hartnett series on Netflix and the Kardashians' return to Hulu. Friday, Avatar: Seven Havens debuts with three episodes weekly for four weeks; I've seen episodes one through six and my review comes when it hits Paramount Plus, around 3 a.m. Friday. Haunted Hotel returns to Netflix, and Disney Plus and Hulu get the Oasis documentary.

The number one spot next weekend is definitely up for grabs, so which movie do you think will take it?