The Rock Shrugs Off Box Office Bomb for ‘The Smashing Machine’

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson isn’t sweating the box office flop of The Smashing Machine, despite it marking the lowest opening weekend of his movie career.

During a live taping of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast in front of 500 film students at Chapman University, Johnson opened up about the deeply personal role and why the numbers didn’t bother him.

“Even that Friday night when we opened, I went to sleep peacefully and woke up peacefully because it represented this thing. And even though we didn’t do well [at the box office], or as well as we wanted to, it was okay because it just represented the thing I did for me.”

The Smashing Machine, where Johnson played former MMA fighter Mark Kerr, was a major departure from his usual blockbuster action comedies like Jumanji or Moana. The film drew praise out of Venice and Toronto film festivals, with critics applauding Johnson’s performance. Still, the movie only pulled in $19 million on a $50 million budget. But for Johnson, this project was about more than box office numbers—it was a creative breakthrough.

“For years I would do these other films that were big and fun, Jumanji and Moana, with a happy ending, and I love that still. But what this represented was, ‘Oh wait, I can do the thing I love, which is to tell stories, but I could also take all this stuff and have a place to put it.’ So you ask if I’m going to run towards this? We have a project with Scorsese, a project with Aronofsky. Yes, I’m going to run, put all my shit in that, and continue to challenge myself. Anyway, Smashing Machine, as you see, was an opportunity of a lifetime that did change my life.”

Even if The Smashing Machine didn’t smash the box office, Dwayne Johnson isn’t losing sleep over it. This was about passion, not profit—and he’s already gearing up for more serious roles with Hollywood heavyweights like Scorsese and Aronofsky. So while the numbers didn’t hit hard, the impact clearly did.