The Rock Breaks Silence On Major Box Office Disappointment
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s new film, The Smashing Machine, opened to an underwhelming box office response.
Made on a budget of $50 million, it earned $5.9 million over the weekend, now standing as Johnson’s lowest opening weekend movie of his acting career.
He portrays former MMA fighter Mark Kerr, depicting his struggles after reaching the peak of his career. Hollywoold icon Emily Blunt plays his ex-wife, after previously starring with The Rock in Jungle Cruise (2021).
The People’s Champion took to Instagram to address the release of The Smashing Machine, where he thanked the fans who watched it and also addressed the box office numbers.
In our storytelling world, you can’t control box office results — but what I realized you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go elsewhere, he wrote.
He further discussed his transformation for the film, while thanking its director Benny Safdie.
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The Rock Took A Huge Paycut For The Smashing Machine
The Rock is one of the highest earning actors in Hollywood.
Having previously starred in several commercially successsful movies, the 53-year-old recently expressed his desire to take more serious roles.
While reviewing The Smashing Machine’s box office stats, Deadline also reported that The Rock took a significant pay cut for the film..
Johnson took a $4M fee, significantly below his historical $20M+ paycheck plus points. Sources say he even gave a portion of his paycheck to Emily Blunt and [Mark] Kerr.
The Rock has been hands-on as far as promoting the movie goes, appearing on various chat shows as well as movie premieres in Europe.
Before the movie realeased, he was tipped as a strong contender to receive an Oscar nomination. Whether or not the box office numbers change that remains to be seen.
Also read: The Rock Secretly Knew Match With WWE Star Was His Last Ever