When You’re Stuck in a Hole……Quit Digging!

WHAT ‘DIGGER” MEANS….

[A few Monday morning musings….]

This isn’t so much about Digger, the new bomb of a movie starring Tom Cruise. I haven’t seen it, yet. Rather, here’s my initial thoughts and questions about just how *bad* this flop is likely to be for creative minds and risk-taking in Hollywood (and elsewhere).

For those unaware, Digger cost a whopping $160 million to make (I have no clue why it cost that much, but that’s the debt load and make-up number). Well, the first opening weekend, which is typically the biggest box office draw period, brought in just $8 million, which is barely 5 percent of the budget — and that doesn’t cover theaters and advertising costs. Now, they’re saying Digger may become the most expensive flop in movie history.

The movie has divided critics. Some hate it. A few love it and think it’s a masterpiece. Not that reviews and quality necessarily matters whether a movie is profitable, or not. Many of the greatest movies ever made were failures when released, and MOST of the hugely successful movies that made hundreds of millions are either barely watchable, or downright awful. Don’t get me started.

Director Alejandro G. Inarritu cast Tom Cruise in his most unlikely movie role, ever. This rich old oilman part certainly plays against “typecasting.” Cruise is 64, but still plays Mission Impossible superheroes. In this film, he looks every wrinkle of his real life six-dacades-plus years….and then some. I do think most of us recognize Cruise as a vastly under-appreciated and under-utilized talent. He was outstanding in Born on the Fourth of July (his only Oscar nomination) and even better in Magnolia. I can see why Cruise would jump at the chance to play a real movie part with chops, instead of jumping out of another helicopter tied to a bungee chord, though his action movies are almost guaranteed to mint money.

None of us will lose any sleep over Cruise’s box office bomb or an entertainment conglomerate losing $100 million. Who cares. The trouble is — when the next risky script and outlier film concept comes up in the Paramount boardroom, that script will hit the garbage can. Who would make another film like this, and take that financial risk, when another remake of a Marvel cartoon character is a lock to pad the vault with profits?

Can “Mission Impossible 13” be too far away? “Spiderman 6?” “Ironman Returns (Again for the 8th Time)” Yawn.

Creativity in movies just fell another wrung on the ladder. Forget taking any real risks — it’s all too much “Risky Business.”

A few years ago, famed director Francis Ford Coppola lost most of his life’s earnings (including his immensely profitable wine vineyards) when he plunged all of his net worth into a colossal movie flop titled “Megalopolis.” Just imagine — FFC in his 80s with five Oscars being broke. After all he’s done. I thought THAT might be the fitting final nail of warning in Hollywood’s coffin. Now, Digger comes along and the hole just got deeper.

Most of us don’t go out to the movie theaters, anymore. The ritual of cinema has changed in ways that I never imagined. Now, most of us sit in front of 80-inch TV screens and pay a monthly Netflix subscription.

I doubt many more mistakes like this will happen. No one can afford to make such errors in judgment, and those who do will pay the price. Sure, there will be box office bombs in the future. Plenty of them. And the film industry is about to enter an expansive new universe, with *AI*-generated everything. Even actors will be digital fabrications — and they’ll never complain or go on strike or get involved in a scandal.

Digger may be remembered much more for its far more foretelling title on what to expect than than anything else.

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