The year 2026 has produced several all-time blockbusters, such as The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and while overall box-office grosses are poised to overtake last year’s haul, there have been a handful of big-ticket bombs. Chief among them are two summer tentpoles — Supergirl and Masters of the Universe. Both big-budget movies, which cost around $180 million each, grossed approximately $130 million at the global box office. Needless to say, there are currently no plans to produce sequels to either project. However, the biggest flop of the year also happens to be among the biggest flops of all time. The movie in question recently hit what will likely be its final box office milestone.
The film was always going to be a tough sell as an R-rated political satire, especially since it cost a reported $180 million to produce. Effectively an arthouse movie with a tentpole budget, the film needed a miracle to succeed. At best, it could replicate the performance of last year’s One Battle After Another. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the movie grossed $213 million worldwide against a reported budget of $175 million, but eventually saved face by winning the coveted Best Picture Oscar.
This year’s epic Warner Bros. flop, on the other hand, received divisive reviews ahead of its release. This prompted the studio to alter its marketing strategy and highlight the conversation that the movie was inspiring. The move didn’t pay off, and the film in question debuted with just $8 million in its first weekend of release at the domestic box office. By Sunday, there were reports of W.B. movie chiefs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca‘s jobs being on the chopping block. Meanwhile, the film was projected to lose $250 million.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.
The Silence of the Lambs · Hannibal · 1991–2002
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.
Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on.
The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
Batman · The Dark Knight · 1989–2019
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for.
His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong.
He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Sherlock Holmes · The Final Problem · Since 1893
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room.
This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing.
It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
No Country for Old Men · 2007
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are.
No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
Call it. He will wait.
Here’s How Much the Movie Has Grossed at the Box Office
If these projections hold, it will become the biggest bomb of all time. We’re talking, of course, about Digger. Directed by two-time Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the film was promoted as a tribute to Tom Cruise‘s career as a movie star. One trailer included a sizzle reel of Cruise’s greatest hits. The aim was to win the iconic star his first acting Oscar.
The prospects seem bleak, given the film’s critical and commercial performance. Also featuring John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, and Jesse Plemons, Digger now holds a 52% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “A stylized satire whose audacious design proves too mannered for some of the laughs to smoothly land, Digger is a bold swing of the shovel by Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu that misses as often as it strikes gold.” Having seen its theater count shrink from 3,321 to just 48 in the span of six weeks, the film has grossed $50 million at the worldwide box office. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
October 2, 2026
Runtime
128 minutes
Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writers
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone
Producers
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Michael Sharp, Tom Cruise
