Digger Gave Tom Cruise His First Rotten Tomatoes Score Since The Mummy. Warner Bros. Says 'Decide for Yourself.' Here's How I'd Decide

I'll say this up front, the same way I did last weekend: I haven't seen Digger. It opens in the U.S. on Friday, and the people who've seen it so far are critics, press, premiere guests and, as of today, some international audiences. So this is not a review. It's something I think is more useful on a day like today: a map of a movie that just split the critics almost exactly down the middle, in the week Warner Bros. is about to change hands.

Here's what happened. The review embargo lifted on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and Digger, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's climate-disaster satire starring Tom Cruise as an oil tycoon, landed at a Rotten 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. By Wednesday afternoon it had drifted to about 50% and Metacritic had it at 44. For Cruise, that's the lowest critics score he's had in nine years, and his first Rotten one since The Mummy in 2017.

Then Warner Bros. did something I didn't expect. It didn't hide. It cut a new ad that puts the raves and the pans side by side and tells you to decide for yourself. I'll get to whether that's brave or desperate. First, the numbers.

What is Digger's Rotten Tomatoes score, and how bad is it?

The short version is about 50%, and it's been sliding a little as more reviews come in. Here's how the number has moved since the embargo lifted, according to the outlets tracking it:

A quick reminder about what that number means, because I see it misread constantly. Rotten Tomatoes doesn't average star ratings. It's the share of reviews that are positive. A 50% means roughly half of critics gave Digger a thumbs-up and half gave it a thumbs-down. It does not mean the movie is a five out of ten. A film can land at 50% because half the critics adored it and half despised it, and that's a very different thing from a film everyone shrugged at.

It also helps to see where this sits in Cruise's own career. His last two Mission: Impossible movies scored 96% and 80%, per FandomWire's numbers. The last time he was Rotten was The Mummy, which got 15% from critics and 35% from audiences, per Yahoo.

So yes, it's his lowest in nine years. But I don't think the comparison to The Mummy is fair, and here's why. A 15% means almost nobody liked it. A 50% with a performance that most of the harshest reviewers still praise is a different kind of Rotten. It's a movie people are fighting about, and I'd argue that's closer to a risk that didn't land for half the room than a disaster.

Who loved Digger, who hated it, and what they agree on

I went through the reviews quoted in the coverage and built my own ledger of ten reactions, ordered from most positive to most negative. I've paraphrased rather than copied, and each line reflects what that outlet actually said.

Read down that table and you'll notice something. The disagreement isn't about Cruise. Even the critics who torch the film tend to single him out, and Riz Ahmed gets praise as a scene stealer too. The craft isn't really in dispute either; Gulf News noted the visuals have drawn little argument, with Emmanuel Lubezki shooting it and Dennis Gassner handling production design. The fight is entirely about the satire: the negative reviews call it obvious, loud and too pleased with itself, while the positive ones call that same volume the whole point.

One practical note. TheWrap reports that the film has surprises the marketing has kept hidden and that some critics have already spoiled them. If you care about going in fresh, read scores, not full reviews.

Warner Bros.' "Decide for Yourself" ad: brave or desperate?

Here's the part I can't stop thinking about. Instead of pulling only the glowing blurbs, Warner Bros. released a spot that stacks the verdicts against each other: "unpleasant" next to "masterpiece," "baffling" next to "brilliant," "insufferable" next to "magnificent," according to Gulf News. It opens with a social media post calling Digger an ambitious film sure to polarize audiences. Cruise's character then shrugs off the naysayers, with some profanity, and gets the last word with a line about people being afraid to tell the truth, "whatever that is."

My honest reaction is that I kind of love it, and I'm also nervous for it. I love it because studios spend years pretending every release is a must-see masterpiece, and this ad treats you like an adult who can handle a fight. I'm nervous because TheWrap made a point that's hard to argue with: in a market where moviegoers are very selective, "decide for yourself" can easily turn into "wait for streaming," which hurts a movie that costs this much.

So is it brave or desperate? I think it's both, and that's what makes it interesting. When a movie can't win the review war, the smart move is to change the question. Instead of "is it good?", the ad asks "are you curious?" Whether that's enough to sell tickets against a busy October is a problem for this weekend.

Digger's box office forecast and break-even math

The forecasts have fallen fast. Early in the month, long-range projections had Digger at $20 million to $30 million. Then the presales came in. TheWrap reports that opening-day presales are roughly half of where One Battle After Another, last year's Best Picture winner, stood at the same point, and that independent projections haven't topped $20 million.

For context, Cruise's last non-sequel, American Made in 2017, opened to $16.8 million, per Screen Rant. Even at the earlier $19 million projection, BroBible noted, Digger would have been the weakest opening among Cruise's nine films with Warner Bros. And the competition is real. Verity opens the same day and TheWrap expects it to take No. 1 with $35 million or more. I wrote about that one in my Verity second-weekend piece.

Now the money. The budget is disputed, and I want to be clear about who is saying what. Digger was greenlit at $125 million. Variety reports that four knowledgeable sources say it climbed to $160 million to $180 million after production ran over schedule, and a Warner Bros. spokesperson disputes those figures. On break-even, Warner Bros. says $300 million worldwide, while rival executives quoted by Variety say closer to $350 million, counting about $100 million in marketing and the fact that theaters keep roughly half of ticket sales. Those same executives say a movie this size would need an opening near $40 million.

Here's the table I wanted to see, and couldn't find anywhere. I took One Battle After Another's $213 million worldwide total, which TheWrap uses as the yardstick for Digger, and measured it against both break-even lines.

Read that twice. A movie that legged out as well as a Best Picture winner would still miss both lines by $87 million to $137 million. The upside exists: The Revenant made $533 million. But that's Iñárritu's biggest hit, and it's a long way from where Digger is tracking.

Why this is Warner Bros.' last film as a standalone studio

This is the angle I think most coverage is underplaying. TheWrap points out that Paramount is set to take ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery next week, which makes Digger the final release in the studio's 103-year history as a standalone company. Clayface in late October, The Cat in the Hat in November and, per TheWrap, Dune: Part Three in December are all expected to arrive under Paramount's ownership. If you want the full background on that deal, I covered it in my Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger analysis.

It also frames the stakes. The studio's 2026 has been rough, with TheWrap naming The Bride!, Supergirl and The End of Oak Street as costly misfires. Digger was supposed to be the prestige bet that changed the story. Instead it arrives as the movie everyone is already writing the obituary for. I'll come back to that in my commentary below, because I think we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Is Digger worth seeing? My decision guide

I can't tell you if it's good. I can tell you how I'd decide, based on everything above.

• Go this weekend if you like big, loud, formally ambitious swings and you'd be happy watching an actor go completely all in even if the movie around him doesn't fully work. That's the one thing nearly every critic, including the harshest, agrees on.
• Wait for the audience score if you want a tiebreaker. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes goes live when the movie opens Friday, and the CinemaScore usually lands over the weekend. If regular moviegoers like it more than critics, that changes the picture.
• Skip it, or wait for streaming, if you want a crowd-pleaser. It's rated R, it runs a little over two hours, and the main complaint from its detractors is that the satire is loud, obvious and exhausting.
• Whatever you pick, avoid full reviews and plot breakdowns if you can. TheWrap says the film hides twists the trailers don't show.

Digger questions people keep searching

What is Digger's Rotten Tomatoes score?

About 50%. Digger debuted at 52% from 79 reviews on Sept. 29, and TheWrap reported 50% from 127 reviews on the afternoon of Sept. 30. The score can still move, and the audience score doesn't go live until the movie opens Friday, Oct. 2.

What is Digger's Metacritic score?

44 out of 100, according to Gulf News on Sept. 30. Like the Rotten Tomatoes score, it can shift as more reviews are added.

Is Digger Tom Cruise's worst-reviewed movie?

Not by the numbers. The Mummy (2017) holds a 15% critics score, per Yahoo's reporting. What Digger did is end a long streak: it's Cruise's first Rotten critics score since The Mummy and his lowest in nine years.

Is Digger worth seeing?

I haven't seen it, so I can't give you a review. What I can say is that critics are split almost evenly and almost everyone, even the harshest reviewers, praises Cruise's performance. If that alone is worth a ticket to you, go. If you want a tiebreaker, wait for the audience score and CinemaScore over the weekend.

What is Digger's opening-weekend tracking?

Variety reported tracking of $12 million to $15 million in North America, down from $18 million to $20 million earlier in the week. Page Six reported as low as $8 million to $12 million. Earlier forecasts from Boxoffice Pro and Box Office Theory were in the $20 million to $30 million range.

What was Digger's budget?

Digger was greenlit at $125 million. Variety reported that four knowledgeable sources say the budget climbed to $160 million to $180 million after production went over schedule. A Warner Bros. spokesperson disputes those figures.

Where is Digger's break-even point?

Warner Bros. says its theatrical break-even is about $300 million worldwide. Executives quoted by Variety put it near $350 million, counting roughly $100 million in marketing and the fact that exhibitors keep about half of ticket sales.

Will Tom Cruise get an Oscar nomination for Digger?

It's too early to say. Some critics still have Cruise in the conversation, but the mixed reviews have dented the film's awards outlook. The Oscar race will be decided months from now, long after the opening weekend.

When is Digger streaming?

I haven't seen a streaming date announced in any of the reporting for this story. Digger opens in North American theaters Friday, Oct. 2, after an international launch on Wednesday, Sept. 30, and it is rated R.