{"id":92672,"date":"2026-10-13T21:06:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T13:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=92672"},"modified":"2026-10-13T21:06:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T13:06:58","slug":"ben-affleck-warns-against-celebrating-box-office-failure-of-tom-cruises-digger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=92672","title":{"rendered":"Ben Affleck Warns Against Celebrating Box Office Failure of Tom Cruise&#8217;s Digger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Ben Affleck has compared the reaction to Tom Cruise\u2019s Digger to \u201chigh-school bullying,\u201d insisting the eagerness with which some have celebrated its box office failure could discourage risk-taking in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Digger is reportedly set to lose an eye-watering $250 million by the end of its theatrical run, with Warner Bros. expecting it to cap at around $40 million globally. Its opening weekend brought in just $8 million domestically and $12 million internationally. It&#8217;s currently on $35.3 million globally after two weekends in theaters. Variety reported that Digger may go down one of the biggest Hollywood flops of all time.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Directed by back-to-back Best Director Oscar winner Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu (Birdman, The Revenant), and starring screen legend Tom Cruise, Digger has split both critics and audiences. Attempts have been made to weaponise the mixed reaction in its favour, and Hollywood stars have come out in its defence, but Digger does not appear to have the legs to recover from its initial box office disaster status.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Top 10 Tom Cruise Movies<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"Ever since exploding onto the scene in the 1980s, Tom Cruise has remained one of the most popular actors in Hollywood. His personal life was once constant tabloid fodder, but in theaters Cruise always managed to keep us entertained. Whether he's shooting down Russian MIGs, running from or toward danger, or just being handsome and charming, Cruise rarely disappoints. &lt;br&gt;&#10;We figured the time had come to take a look at Cruise's prolific career and pick out his best films. From early efforts like Rain Man to '90s classics like A Few Good Men to more recent favorites such as Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Edge of Tomorrow, these are the movies any self-respecting Tom Cruise lover needs to see.&lt;br&gt;&#10;In the interest of keeping this Tom Cruise Top 10 lean and mean we've decided to only pick the best film from franchises - the one that best represents Cruise's strengths as an actor.\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2277167929 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Speaking on Josh Horowitz&#8217;s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Batman star Ben Affleck defended ambitious filmmaking and risk-taking, issuing a warning that the reaction to Digger could see Hollywood retreat into safer bets such as sequels and recognizable IP adaptations.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a little bit like the high-school bullying thing,\u201d Affleck argued, \u201cwith people who hadn\u2019t even seen movies. You see it happening now, frankly, with Digger. Everybody wants to celebrate this bomb as if it\u2019s the most exciting thing to happen. And you think like, it\u2019s a pretty ambitious, interesting movie made by interesting people who have talent.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cEverybody wants to count the money, what it lost or whatever. To me, I just think, if you punish movies that take risks, guess what you&#8217;re going to get? A bunch of s**tty homogenized movies. You cannot do something interesting without taking a big swing. And that means you&#8217;re going to sometimes look bad.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Digger has a 53% rating on<u> Rotten Tomatoes&#8217; Tomatometer<\/u>, and a more positive 74% user review rating on its Popcornmeter. IGN\u2019s Digger review returned a 6\/10. We said: \u201cDigger&#8217;s satire may not change your thinking on global warming, but there are excellent performances and more than a few laughs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><u>Digger trolled the negative reviews<\/u> in its most recent ad campaign, but that failed to move the needle. Tom Cruise himself has yet to issue an official statement in response.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"\/><\/span><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"author-sign-off\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><span class=\"stack jsx-59817748 jsx-1927875859\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-444076027 jsx-1730475047 profile-thumb jsx-2141281959 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-1-1\"><img alt=\"Wesley Yin-Poole Avatar\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image profile-thumb-img jsx-249361588 jsx-2338608387 expand\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/647a102007506e0001446162\/wes_headshot-1685964645017.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80 1x, https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/647a102007506e0001446162\/wes_headshot-1685964645017.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;dpr=2&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80 2x\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-3630940851\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 sign-off-text\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Wesley is IGN&#8217;s Managing Editor. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at\u00a0wesley_yinpoole@ign.com\u00a0or confidentially at\u00a0wyp100@proton.me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<p><\/output><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/ben-affleck-warns-against-celebrating-box-office-failure-of-tom-cruises-digger-says-it-could-discourage-risk-taking-in-hollywood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Affleck has compared the reaction to Tom Cruise\u2019s Digger to \u201chigh-school bullying,\u201d insisting the eagerness with which some have celebrated its box office failure&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[31346,5848,3447,9571,5966,29320,1712,517,12018,6865],"class_list":["post-92672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-affleck","tag-ben","tag-box","tag-celebrating","tag-cruises","tag-digger","tag-failure","tag-office","tag-tom","tag-warns","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}