Warner Bros. has tested out a new marketing strategy for its box office flop Digger after a dismal opening weekend for the Tom Cruise movie.Cruise and director Alejandro G Iñárritu’s critically panned satire, which cost at least $125million to make, grossed just $8million in US cinemas over the weekend – the lowest opening weekend box office for a movie starring Cruise in 19 years. After already blowing another $100million on marketing, which has seen Cruise in megadrive mode fronting months of teasers and appearing on every TV show going, the marketing executives have deployed a bold new tactic.The social media accounts for Digger are now leaning into the divisive reaction to the movie. In recent days the film’s X account has been reposting any positive fan review it can find, adding thunderous replies in the style of Cruise’s oil tycoon character such as ‘HIT ‘EM WITH THE HARD TRUTH.’But one post which took direct aim at US critics and their scathing reviews has been deleted by the studio.Last week as the critical reviews rolled in, an online ad was shared on X which showed Cruise as Digger Rockwell saying, ‘America has stood beside the world in its darkest of hours,’ to which Riz Ahmed’s character shoots back, ‘Not anymore’. Warner Bros. have tested out a new marketing strategy for their box office flop Digger after a dismal opening weekend for the Tom Cruise movieThe ad then flashed up a succession of critic quotes alongside a flag representing the critic’s country. The first from a Mexican YouTuber who called the film ‘Epic, Extraordinary and Biting’, was followed by a quote from US site Playlist which called the film ‘Grotesque, Deliberately Tacky’. There was also a line from a French critic who declared the film ‘a Gem of Intelligence’, followed by The New York Post calling it ‘An Unintentionally Bad Movie’. The ad concluded with Cruise’s character declaring, ‘You decide which!’As of Monday the ad was no longer available on X. Reactions to the post remain on the site though with one fan deciding: ‘a film’s marketing calling out how dumb Americans are is such a beast mode move man, I might have to watch it now!’ ‘They’re saying Americans are too dumb for DIGGER. Prove the Europeans wrong and go to the movies. It’s your patriotic duty,’ added another. ‘Holy s*** they’re straight up calling out americans for being the only people who didn’t like the movie,’ said one more. It’s an interesting strategy for the movie, which contrary to the ad has not performed particularly well overseas. The opening weekend saw international sales of just $12million from 74 countries. The social media accounts for Digger are now leaning into the divisive reaction to the movie. The movie’s official X account has been busy retweeting any positive fan review it can findBritish critics though have been somewhat kinder to the film than their US counterparts. The Daily Mail’s Brian Viner leaned on the side of praise, as he awarded the film four stars, writing: ‘I’ve already seen Digger twice, and enjoyed it much more the second time, knowing the twists from the start.’First time round, I felt it got tangled in its own conceit and artifice, becoming not just baffling but self-indulgent.’Nonetheless, this is bold and often brilliant film-making, with deserved whispers of Oscar nominations for Inarritu, Cruise and Goodman, and fabulous supporting performances from Ahmed, Sandra Huller and Jesse Plemons, not to mention an animatronic cat.’Other critics to laud the film included the BBC’s Nicholas Barber, who wrote in his four-star review: ‘Personally, I loved it. Some of its excesses are, well, a bit too excessive, and most viewers will wish it was shorter… but when Cruise is clambering all over the set, delivering thunderous lectures on the oil industry, I couldn’t help grinning at the gargantuan scale of his performance, the conviction of the script’s grim environmental message, and Iñárritu’s antic style.’However, many reviews were on the negative side, with The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw awarding the film just two stars.He wrote: ‘As with Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, there may be a tacit consensus, understandable at some level, that at least we have a big mainstream movie which is talking about the biggest issue of our time, and we have a duty to suspend critical objection.Join the discussionAre American movie critics too harsh on bold films, or does Digger deserve its box office failure?What’s your view? The studio appear to have had a change of heart with one post though, swiftly deleting a recent online ad which pitted the opinions of US critics against European reviews’Digger certainly resonates with Donald Trump’s greedy urge to despoil the Arctic and everywhere else. Yet there is something glib and overblown here. This film finds itself in a postmodern hole. And what do you do when you’re in a hole?’Kevin Maher in The Times went further, and gave the film just one star while writing: ‘There surely exists an alternate movie universe where Digger is played by an actual ”older” actor, say Dustin Hoffman or Ben Kingsley, and in that universe that film is certainly more effective than this one.Digger is one of the few awards-focused movies that Cruise has starred in for almost three decades and is directed by four-time Oscar winner Alejandro, who is known for his work on Birdman and The Revenant.And some Hollywood insiders suggest that the movie star could still be on course for his first Oscar, despite the biggest box office flop of his career.The actor has never won a competitive Academy Award, but did receive an honorary Oscar last year celebrating his four decades in Hollywood.Awards site Gold Derby experts currently have Cruise in fourth for a Best Actor nomination (with odds at 63%) but caution the 2027 category is a hotly contested race with Andrew Scott (Elsinore), John Malkovich (Wild Horse Nine) and Matt Damon (The Odyssey) all thought to be shoo-ins for a nod. Digger: What the critics think The Daily Mail, Brian VinerRating:Rating: Four stars ‘I’ve already seen Digger twice, and enjoyed it much more the second time, knowing the twists from the start. ‘First time round, I felt it got tangled in its own conceit and artifice, becoming not just baffling but self-indulgent.’Nonetheless, this is bold and often brilliant film-making, with deserved whispers of Oscar nominations for Inarritu, Cruise and Goodman, and fabulous supporting performances from Ahmed, Sandra Huller and Jesse Plemons, not to mention an animatronic cat.’BBC, Nicholas BarberRating:Rating: Four stars ‘Personally, I loved it. Some of its excesses are, well, a bit too excessive, and most viewers will wish it was shorter. ‘After about 90 minutes, you get tired of close-ups of Goodman yelling while snake-sized veins bulge out of his forehead. ‘But when Cruise is clambering all over the set, delivering thunderous lectures on the oil industry, I couldn’t help grinning at the gargantuan scale of his performance, the conviction of the script’s grim environmental message, and Iñárritu’s antic style.’The Telegraph, Robbie CollinRating:Rating: Four stars’Digger itself exists in that perpetually uncertain state, and I’m not sure whether the debate it’s having with itself about art’s impotence in the face of catastrophe is one it can, or even wants to, resolve. ‘But what a thrill to watch Iñárritu and Cruise hash it out with so much beauty, daring and extravagance.’The Los Angeles Times, Amy Nicholson’Tom Cruise has dangled from cliffs, skyscrapers and planes, but oil magnate Digger Rockwell is his riskiest role in eons.’Collider’Without special effects or stunts, the veteran star [Tom Cruise] holds your attention throughout, grandstanding in a way that feels like an Oscar moment both in its intention and its impact.’The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw Rating:Rating: Two stars ‘As with Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, there may be a tacit consensus, understandable at some level, that at least we have a big mainstream movie which is talking about the biggest issue of our time, and we have a duty to suspend critical objection. ‘Digger certainly resonates with Donald Trump’s greedy urge to despoil the Arctic and everywhere else. Yet there is something glib and overblown here. This film finds itself in a postmodern hole. And what do you do when you’re in a hole?’The Times, Kevin Maher Rating:Rating: One star ‘There surely exists an alternate movie universe where Digger is played by an actual ”older” actor, say Dustin Hoffman or Ben Kingsley, and in that universe that film is certainly more effective than this one. ‘Cruise, instead, is in the unenviable position of being Digger’s sole selling point and its fatal flaw.’Empire, Olly RichardsRating:Rating: Two stars ‘Digger is a bumptious blowhard… Cruise emerges with a win, reminding us how riveting he can be as an actor, not just as a movie star. ‘A role so oversized and absurd demands fearless commitment, which he certainly gives. The big swing is laudable. If only the film were more rewarding.’Variety, Owen Gleiberman’I’m not sure that ‘Digger’ is going to connect, because it’s so full of itself — so top-heavy with importance. ‘The movie cost north of $125 million to make, and that figure is not only too big to probably justify itself; it’s a testament to the arrogance of the filmmakers – to the assumption that we’ll turn out in droves for this ponderous absurdist lecture.’The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney’I was reminded of colossal misfires like Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, bloated movies by directors so drunk on their exalted reputations they forgot there was an audience to consider.’ The Boston GlobeDigger is a ‘turgid, unfunny, and borderline unwatchable 128 minute mess’. Den Of Geek'[Digger] forgets the statement must still work as anything more than a self-flagellating valediction from a movie star.’ The Wrap, William Bibianni’Digger is what happens when you give the week’s worst Saturday Night Live sketch an inexplicably large budget and delusions of grandeur.’The New York Post, Johnny Oleksinski’The trouble with Iñárritu’s pretentious frame story (sorry to be so vague) is that it causes us to not take about 90% of the movie seriously and to zone out for long stretches. ‘There are no stakes to be found and no laughs to be had. There’s certainly no point.’The Independent, Clarisse LoughreyRating:Rating: Two stars ‘As much as Digger has been sold on the promise that Cruise here is a revelation, there’s no real inversion to speak of, merely a return to the kind of work he did (over two decades ago!) before his blockbuster action streak. ‘Even his latex makeover seems reminiscent of his paunchy, balding Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder.’Indiewire, David Ehrlic ‘The reason why Digger is a nobler and more rewarding failure than Birdman or Bardo is because it doesn’t have to pretend that Digger Rockwell is a real person. ‘He’s a living cartoon who’s exempted from the human foundation that was missing from those earlier films, and — for all of this movie’s psych-outs and detours — that allows Iñárritu to address his existential crises with a greater directness and degree of relatability.’