John Goodman Says Critics 'Killed' Digger Before It Opened

Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "Digger" will lose Warner Bros. around $250 million in theaters, and John Goodman says critics doomed the film before a single ticket was sold.

Speaking on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Goodman addressed the failure directly. "Digger" cost north of $160 million to make, opened to $15 million domestically, and after a month in release has still not crossed $50 million worldwide.

"People are talking. It hurt. It kinda killed us before we even opened. [The headlines like]: 'This will only make $5.' It was good reason for people to avoid it," Goodman said.

What does Goodman actually claim?

He blames pre-release negativity, not the film itself. "I am proud of it. I had a ball doing it. It was a good six months out of my life. It is a huge swing. It's going to be around for a long time."

That last sentence is a prediction, not a fact. The numbers so far suggest otherwise: critics split on the film (53% on Rotten Tomatoes), and industry estimates put its break-even point at roughly $350 million.

Goodman admitted he still reads the coverage, despite four decades in the business. "Unfortunately I have to say that I am. I have to be very honest. I used to be less so. Maybe I am getting old and pathetic and it's like, 'Don't hit me again!'"

He also offered a counter-example from his own career: "everything I have done for the Coen Brothers flopped initially… so who cares, man? I still have people coming up to me in the streets asking me about 'Barton Fink' and 'Big Lebowski.'"

What is the film?

"Digger" stars Tom Cruise as an oil tycoon whose Antarctic rig malfunctions and sends ice caps hurtling toward Europe. Goodman plays the U.S. president. The scale explains the budget; the reception explains the loss. Warner Bros. has not publicly responded to Goodman's comments about the coverage.

Who defended the film?

A string of Hollywood figures rallied around the movie during its run:

• Neil Young posted on his website that "Digger" is "the best film I have ever seen."
• Mandy Patinkin called it an "instant classic" and "one of the greatest pieces of film I have ever seen in my entire life."
• Anne Hathaway, Jane Fonda and Ben Affleck also praised it, with Affleck condemning the pile-on.

Affleck, speaking on the same podcast last month, framed the failure as a warning for the industry. "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 shitty homogenized movies. You cannot do something interesting without taking a big swing. And that means you're going to sometimes look bad."

What does this change for Hollywood?

Possibly nothing. Studio accounting rarely rewards ambition that loses a quarter of a billion dollars, and Goodman's defense — that early headlines sank the film — does not explain why audiences stayed away after opening weekend, when word of mouth, not critics, drives sales. His Coen brothers comparison is the stronger argument: initial flop status has never settled a film's reputation. "Digger" now enters that long argument over which failures get rediscovered, and which simply stay lost.