It's not been the easiest return to non-franchise films for Tom Cruise. Since 2017's American Made, Cruise has appeared in the biggest blockbuster franchises, culminating in his final outing as Ethan Hunt in 2025's Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. Now he's back on the hunt for an Academy Award as the lead in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's first English-language film since 2015's The Revenant, the satirical black comedy Digger.
Alas, it has been anything but plain sailing for Digger since it debuted in theaters, flopping in spectacular fashion in its first weekend with just $20 million worldwide. With the film already losing its place in certain theaters and receiving scathing reviews from many online, it's difficult to imagine a worse start to theatrical life for Cruise's latest. Some reports project the film to lose somewhere in the region of $250 million for Warner Bros., compounding a terrible year for the company amid turbulent restructuring. But Digger's failure doesn't reflect Cruise's popularity, with his place as a streaming favorite in no doubt.
At the time of writing, Cruise's action sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, is the sixth most-watched movie on Prime Video in the U.S. A follow-up to Cruise's team-up with long-time collaborator Christopher McQuarrie on a big-budget Jack Reacher adaptation, this sequel faced much more backlash than the original, especially with those fans of the source material. The film was a quiet success at the box office, turning a reported $60 million budget into $160 million worldwide, split between a domestic haul of $59 million and a further $101 million from overseas markets.
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you would be having within a week.
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting you.
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
Cruise's slick interpretation of Lee Child's iconic character has been overshadowed in the years since by Alan Ritchson's version, which has helped define the action genre on Prime Video. Recently, Ritchson's titular ass-kicker returned for a fourth season, which culminated in an explosive finale. This finale was followed by the debut of an exciting new spin-off, Neagley, starring fan-favorite Maria Sten (Swamp Thing). Both Reacher and Neagley are two of the most popular titles on Prime Video right now, with the heist threequel Now You See Me: Now You Don’t currently topping the charts.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is a hit right now on Prime Video. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.
