Tom Cruise's Digger set to lose $250 million after box office flop

Tom Cruise's Digger is on course to lose about $250 million, turning the star's latest Hollywood release into a costly flop.

The slide began on opening weekend. Reports say the film collected $8 million in the US and $21 million worldwide in that first stretch.

Digger is an original story, not a sequel. Cruise plays the most powerful man in the world, who triggers a disaster that threatens to wipe out everything and then scrambles to prove he can save humanity.

Here, the action star swaps stunts for satire. The film plays its end-of-the-world plot as dark comedy, and audiences did not turn up for it.

With no franchise to lean on, the whole loss falls on the studio that backed it.