How Digger’s Marketing Failed a Great Movie
Last night, I went to see Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger, a satire starring Tom Cruise as the titular Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon at the forefront of an imminent and fatal humanitarian crisis with worldwide ramifications. This week was my last chance to see the film, as theaters nearby are beginning to take the film out of their rotation as soon as this Friday. This baffled me going in—the film has hardly been out for two weeks—but baffled me even more leaving the theater. Digger is one of the most creative original films I’ve seen all year, making so many big swings and delivering with a brilliant set, brilliant design, and brilliant layers to its narrative. It’s hard to explain exactly what goes into the film’s process of layering its narrative without completely shattering the twists of its story, and no, it’s not a musical. What Digger becomes, both before its audience and its cast, is something so much more than how it’s been presented to us.
Digger‘s first trailer, in a vacuum, I feel is put together well at the very least. Some great clips are cut together, the backing track is strong and confident, but its very composition commanded the question that got us into this mess: What IS Digger? The movie has to be more than they’re showing us. Anyone can make a satire about big business colliding into federal decision-making for a catastrophe of grand proportions. What could this film TRULY be about that brought big stars like Tom Cruise, Jesse Plemons, John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller and more to sign?
As the months ticked down to release, more questions arose. More trailers released, and answered none of them. If Digger really is just another satire of the elite scrambling to fix a problem they never seriously considered the consequences of, is it for us? All we had to go off was festival reactions. When the film released?
Ouch.
And yet, the marketing department grinned in defiance. If they couldn’t control the course of nature, at least they could control the narrative.
Is it new for a film to utilize its polarizing reviews as a marketing push? Not at all. Is it still effective? Absolutely. I saw the tides shift upon the release of Digger‘s tactical “Same Film, Different Truths” pivot. This trailer brings in the urgency and pressure that the film truly puts on its audience in the moment, and is a direction I feel much better suits the story as a whole. The unfortunate truth is that in its blunt nature, the advertisement doesn’t touch upon much of the plot of the film in what I’d argue is its best showcase of the tone. Again, though, this pivot definitely put the film on a lot of peoples’ radars, including theatergoers who might not have been considering going to see it. While I always had a plan to see Digger—I did really like the colorblock posters before the trailers released—this had me feeling more about the movie than I had from any clip prior.
If Digger is truly exiting theaters as soon as this Friday more places than just near me, it’s a shame. The movie is set to lose Warner Bros. over $200 million after grossing less than $40 million on a $125-180 million budget. If I’m to be completely honest with you, I’d rather Warner Bros. lose money on this than not have this movie exist at all. The film space is more interesting in a post-Digger world. I’m glad I went through some horrific traffic both ways to see it.
Digger is now in theaters nationwide. Go see it this week, while you still can.