Tom Cruise has spent decades making the impossible look like a contractual obligation, but Digger has finally handed Hollywood’s most bankable daredevil a crater he cannot sprint out of. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s sprawling climate satire opened to a brutal $8 million domestically and roughly $21 million worldwide, while critics remained sharply divided over its grand, confrontational weirdness.

With losses now projected around $250 million, the conversation has quickly shifted from artistic ambition to financial catastrophe.

Guillermo del Toro, however, has little interest in letting a spreadsheet write the obituary.

The latest salvo arrived on X after a post defending Digger described the film as being made “for the arts, not the charts.” Guillermo del Toro reposted the sentiment with six words that neatly summarized his entire position.

“Love the arts. F*** the charts." del Toro wrote on X.

It was hardly his first trip into the trenches for Iñárritu’s movie. Before the disastrous opening weekend had fully materialized, del Toro had already challenged what he considered unnecessarily gleeful coverage of the film.

Responding to an IGN headline, he called it “entirely petty” and stressed that viewers were free to dislike the movie while still acknowledging its ambition.

“The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level,” he wrote, describing it as daring and cinematically complex.His defense has focused less on claiming universal greatness and more on protecting the space for spectacular creative swings.

Del Toro also amplified positive reactions and invoked the long history of movies that were dismissed or attacked before finding appreciation later, citing works such as The Big Lebowski and The King of Comedy. The X post shows he clearly believes the film deserves to survive the weekend grosses. Warner Bros., however, has a considerably more expensive question to answer.

How 'Digger' Dug Its Own Grave: 4 Reasons Behind Its $250 Million Box Office Loss

Because loving the arts becomes harder when one artistic gamble leaves a quarter-billion-dollar hole in the accounts.

Digger is projected to lose approximately $250 million even after post-theatrical revenue, making it Cruise’s largest financial failure and one of the costliest movie losses in recent years. The production cost exceeded $170 million, while Warner also poured roughly $100 million into marketing.

The timing could hardly be more ominous. Digger arrived as Paramount Skydance completed its takeover of Warner Bros., with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy departing and Paramount executives Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein taking control of film output. De Luca and Abdy had built a reputation for backing filmmaker-driven originals, producing successes such as Sinners alongside expensive misses.

Nobody at Skydance has announced the death of auteur cinema. Still, the combined company enters its new era carrying enormous debt, and industry observers expect greater pressure for reliable theatrical hits. Franchises, sequels and recognizable IP naturally become attractive when a singular original vision can produce a loss this severe.

“We Expected That” – Alejandro Iñárritu on ‘Digger’s Scathing Reviews Amid Box Office Flop

What do you think about Guillermo del Toro’s defense of Digger? Should artistic ambition matter more than box-office performance? Let us know in the comments.