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Ben Affleck slams those celebrating Tom Cruise’s Digger box office failure, compares it to high school bullying: ‘Everybody wants to count money’
Ben Affleck argued that punishing ambitious films for taking risks could lead to more formulaic movies.
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Hollywood actor Ben Affleck has come out in support of Tom Cruise’s latest film, Digger. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the film has underperformed at the box office, marking Tom’s lowest domestic opening in 19 years. Amid its disappointing performance, Ben called out those celebrating the film’s failure, comparing their reactions to schoolyard bullying.
‘A bit like the high school bullying’
During his appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ben said, “It's a little bit like the high school bullying thing. You see it happening now, frankly, with Digger. Everybody wants to celebrate this bomb as if it's the most exciting thing that happened and you think like, This is a pretty ambitious, interesting movie made by interesting people that have talent.”
Ben warns against criticising experimental films like Digger
Ben warned that celebrating the failure of an experimental film could result in audiences getting only “sh**** homogenized movie” churned out by the film industry. He said, “Everybody wants to count the money — what it lost or whatever. To me, I just think, if you punish movies that take risks, guess what you're going to get? A bunch of sh*tty homogenized movies. You cannot do something interesting without taking a big swing. That means you're going to sometimes look bad.”
About Digger
Ever since Tom Cruise’s look in Digger was revealed, the film has been a talking point, with the actor looking almost unrecognisable as Digger Rockwell, a wealthy, swaggering and eccentric oil tycoon whose offshore drilling disaster in Greenland triggers a global environmental crisis.
The film is structured as a complex play within a film and explores themes of corporate greed, climate change and narrative control. It also stars Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons. Besides playing the lead role, Tom also bankrolled the film.
Digger box office performance
Digger is among the biggest box-office flops in Hollywood history. As per AFP, after two weeks in theaters, the film has grossed just $14.4 million in North America and $35.3 million globally tiny numbers for a big-budget movie that points to cumulative losses in the region of $245 million.
A Variety report estimated that Digger was made on a budget of $160 million to $180 million, with another $100 million spent on marketing.
