The film was a passion project of The Rock’s.
On October 3, A24’s ‘The Smashing Machine’ premiered in cinemas, starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as MMA legend Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his partner, Dawn Staples.
According to Deadline, Johnson took a substantial pay cut for the project, with reports suggesting he even shared a portion of his salary with his co-star and the UFC Hall of Famer the film is based on.
“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 Kerr.”
-Deadline
Despite earning a 15-and-a-half-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival and widespread praise for what many have called The Rock’s best-ever performance, ‘The Smashing Machine’ debuted to just $6 million domestically, marking the lowest opening weekend of the former WWE Champion’s career.
Nevertheless, it’s evident that ‘The Smashing Machine’ was a true passion project for Johnson, who took to Instagram following the film’s underwhelming box office performance to share the following:
“From deep in my grateful bones, thank you to everyone who has watched The Smashing Machine. 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. And I will always run to that opportunity. It was an honor to transform in this role for my director Benny Safdie. Thank you brother for believing in me. Truth is this film has changed my life.”
-Dwayne Johnson
Following his portrayal of Mark Kerr, Johnson is expected to reprise his role as Maui in Disney’s live-action ‘Moana’, releasing on July 10, 2026, and is also slated to return as Luke Hobbs in ‘Fast & Furious 11’, set to hit theaters later next year.
Earlier this year, it was also reported that The Rock will star in a Hawaii-set crime thriller directed by Martin Scorsese, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt reportedly joining the cast. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the future of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and the performance of A24’s ‘The Smashing Machine’ as soon as we hear more.
