Dwayne The Rock Johnson has taken a philosophical approach to his latest film underperforming at the box office.
The Smashing Machine is a 2025 American biographical sports drama film written, directed, produced, and edited by Benny Safdie. It stars Dwayne Johnson as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, alongside Emily Blunt as Kerr’s girlfriend Dawn Staples, with Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten and Oleksandr Usyk in supporting roles. The movie took just 5.9 million USD at the US box office, an underperforming debut for one of Johnson’s films. Writing on Instagram, the star framed the results as a creative achievement rather than a financial disappointment.
“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 my 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. With deep gratitude, respect and radical empathy,
Dj”
Cost of filming
Variety wrote that the film cost 50 million USD to produce (and plenty more to market), and early estimates predicted a good opening weekend of about 20 million USD.
Dwayne Johnson’s vision for the movie
The Smashing Machine marks a rare dramatic role for Johnson, who is best known for action franchises and family-friendly movies, including voicing a character in Disney’s Moana animation. He plays Kerr, a fighter who dominated the early, unregulated days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in the 1990s – before all the safety rules were introduced like no eye-gouging. The film was developed from a 2002 documentary about Kerr with the same title, which contrasted the fighter’s achievements as he battled substance abuse and fought with his girlfriend. The Rock, a former wrestler, saw similarities to his own career in the documentary, and had the idea of dramatising it for several years.
Reviews at the Venice Film Festival
The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2025. The biopic film received amazing reviews like, “The actor delivers an intoxicating mix of blood, sweat, tears, protein and total helplessness,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter.
Empire magazine called it “the best work of his career”.
Box office collection
The film came fourth in the UK charts. Audience tracking for the US suggested that 70% of ticket-buyers were male and 64% were between the ages of 18 to 36, which is the traditional audience for Johnson’s action movies. But only 8% were above 55 years old, the key demographic for arthouse releases.
Those who attended the film were apparently disappointed in the lack of action scenes.
Dwayne Johnson’s statement before release
Johnson tried to cool down the expectations of the action for the audience in the run-up to the release. He said “It’s not a fight movie, it’s a life movie Mark Kerr’s life represents so much of everyone around the world, but not, ‘Oh, he’s the greatest fighter on the planet,’ but more so, ‘Oh, he struggled with pressure and how to deal with pressure,’ at one point, he was the greatest fighter on the planet, and then he lost – and he had a hard time reconciling with that loss. He overdosed twice. He’s lucky to be alive, and I’m so happy that he is alive. Because as you know, films like this where they’re a bio film, a lot of times, the main subject isn’t alive… So, I’m so thankful that he is,” he added.
Despite the box office disappointment, Johnson and his co-star Emily Blunt might still be up for Oscar nominations next year.
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