Tom Cruise-starrer “Digger” opened to just $8 million at the North American box office, finishing fifth in its opening weekend and marking one of the actor’s weakest theatrical debuts in nearly two decades.

The Warner Bros film earned the amount from 3,321 cinemas across the US and Canada. It added around $12 million from international markets, taking its worldwide opening weekend total to roughly $20 million.

The weak debut is a major setback for the film, which was directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu and had been expected to perform significantly better.

Early projections had put the film’s North American opening at around $30 million, but estimates were repeatedly lowered ahead of its release.

“Digger” reportedly had a production budget of at least $125 million, with some industry estimates putting the figure considerably higher. Its weak opening is expected to result in a substantial financial loss for the studio.

In the film, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a powerful oil tycoon who becomes embroiled in a global environmental crisis. The dark satire marks Cruise’s first collaboration with Iñárritu.

The film received mixed reactions from critics and audiences, scoring 51% from critics and 71% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. CinemaScore gave it a C+.

“Digger” was easily outperformed at the North American box office by Anne Hathaway-starrer “Verity”, which opened at No 1 with $32.6 million from 3,510 cinemas.

Based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, “Verity” also stars Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett.

The weak performance of “Digger” comes after Cruise spent much of the past decade as one of Hollywood’s most reliable box-office stars, particularly through the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and “Top Gun: Maverick”.

Source: Hollywood Reporter