His Long-Awaited “Oscar Bid” Ends in an Unexpected Flop… Tom Cruise Responds to the Poor Performance of *DIGGER*

Portraying the greedy oil tycoon Digger,

Tom Cruise (64) teamed up for the first time with master director Alejandro González Iñárritu (63)—who has won the Academy Award for Best Director two years in a row—in the highly anticipated film *Digger*, which opened nationwide in the U.S. on October 2.

A “Japan Premiere” was held in Tokyo on October 6, demonstrating the serious commitment of both Cruise and Director Iñárritu to the event. The film opened in Japan on the 9th, and expectations were high not only among Cruise fans but also domestically, given his collaboration with the director currently considered the most dynamic in Hollywood.

However, the film’s opening weekend box office performance in the U.S. was unexpectedly weak, and it has sparked mixed reviews regarding its content. But the controversy doesn’t end there. In response to the criticism, Cruise himself has launched a “counterargument” in the U.S. media, which has become a major talking point.

This film is a satirical comedy in which Cruise plays Digger, a greedy, gray-haired, potbellied oil tycoon who must confront a crisis of global collapse of his own making. It marks his first collaboration with director Iñárritu—who won the Academy Award for Best Director two years in a row for *Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)* (2014) and*The Revenant* (2015), and marks the first time he has teamed up with director Iñárritu, who won the Academy Award for Best Director two years in a row. It is a major production that took nine years to complete.

Since Leonardo DiCaprio (51), who starred in *The Revenant*, won his first Academy Award for Best Actor, there had been speculation that Cruise might also win his first Academy Award for Best Actor.

However, a major upset occurred following the film’s North American release on October 2.

According to the U.S. box office website “Box Office Mojo,” the top spot in the North American weekend box office rankings (October 2–4) went to “Verity,” starring Anne Hathaway, which also opened on October 2 (grossing approximately 5.1 billion yen).Second place went to “Resident Evil” (gross: approximately 2 billion yen), a franchise well-known in Japan, while third place was taken by “Heart of the Beast,” starring Brad Pitt (gross: approximately 1.7 billion yen). “DIGGER” opened in fourth place (gross: approximately 1.3 billion yen), marking an unexpectedly weak debut.

Critical reception was also mixed; the American entertainment news site “RadarOnline.com” stated

“The hope that Tom Cruise would finally win his long-awaited Academy Award for acting has been dashed,”

. On the other hand, the U.S. magazine *The New Yorker* wrote about the film,

“Tom Cruise is hilarious and absolutely entertaining,”

. Brian Biner, a renowned film critic for the British newspaper *Daily Mail*, also gave it a high rating of 4 out of 5 stars, reflecting the fact that reviews across the U.S. are split.

Taking *Blade Runner* as an example

Amid this, on October 6, Cruise, along with director Iñárritu, appeared on an interview for “Kevin McCarthy TV,” hosted by American film journalist Kevin McCarthy, where they addressed the film’s underwhelming opening weekend and the mixed reviews it has received. They effectively countered the criticism. Cruise said

“When making a movie, I’ve never once been concerned with opening-weekend box office figures, nor have I ever viewed it from that perspective,”

. He then cited several examples of films that were later hailed as masterpieces but were panned by critics or underperformed at the box office upon their initial release. Director Iñárritu then remarked,

“‘Blade Runner’ was panned and called a huge flop,”

to which Cruise replied,

“No, that’s a masterpiece,”

Cruise replied. *Blade Runner* (1982) is now widely regarded as a masterpiece of science fiction directed by Ridley Scott.

“It’s just like how *Once Upon a Time in America* was said to be a mess—but anyway, those kinds of movies are, in a sense, transcendent,”

said Cruise. Furthermore,

“For example, *Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid* (released in 1969; a masterpiece of the American New Wave) wasn’t a hit, so it was pulled from theaters and later re-released,”

he argued, implicitly asserting that *DIGGER* belongs to that genre.

Speaking from a personal perspective, the role and story—which are completely different from Cruise’s characters in the *Top Gun* and *Mission: Impossible* series—are superb; the satire on environmental destruction is spot-on, and there are some truly surprising twists.

I found it to be a film with many highlights, including experimental structures like those in *Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)* (winner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography at the 87th Academy Awards)—which is said to have employed advanced techniques in camerawork and editing to make the audience believe the entire film was shot in a single take.I believe it has a strong chance of being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

However, this year’s Best Actor category is said to be fiercely competitive, with Matt Damon (56) from Christopher Nolan’s *The Odyssey*, Brad Pitt (62) from *Heart of the Beast*,Robert Pattinson (40) for *Two Dramas* and *Prime Time* are likely to be his rivals, and I predict the race will undoubtedly be too close to call.

Cruise has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for *Born on the Fourth of July* (1989) and *The Agent* (1996), and for Best Supporting Actor for *Magnolia* (1999).He was also nominated for Best Picture as a producer for *Top Gun: Maverick* (2022), though he did not win. Although he received an Academy Honorary Award last November, he is eager to win his first Oscar in the acting category—a long-cherished dream.

In any case, *DIGGER* represents Cruise’s all-out effort to take on a masterpiece that will go down in history. All eyes are on how the film’s box office performance will unfold and how the judges of major film awards—particularly the Academy Awards—will evaluate it as the awards season approaches.