The Showgirl met the Final Boss in a box office showdown this past weekend. And sadly for The Rock, Taylor Swift proved too strong for his A24-produced dramatic U-turn. The sports drama could only muster a $6.2 million debut, far below the reported projections of $20 million on its opening weekend. And to add insult to injury, it delivers an unwanted record to Dwayne Johnson: a new career-low box office opening.
The Smashing Machine follows MMA fighter Mark Kerr (played by Johnson) and the personal sacrifices and difficulties he faced in the pursuit of combat sports glory. Oscar nominee Emily Blunt plays Kerr’s wife, Dawn Staples. Despite a subdued opening, the film has earned acclaim from critics and the fans who did manage to catch the movie this weekend. At the time of writing, the film holds a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned director Benny Safdie the prestigious Silver Lion for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival over the summer.
Taylor Swift Delivers a Rock Bottom to The Smashing Machine’s Box Office Hopes
And while industry insiders and film fans will be dissecting what went wrong for The Smashing Machine, A24 may have fixed a number of its box office issues by releasing it a week later. Johnson’s UFC drama went head-to-head with the biggest pop star on the planet, Taylor Swift, who also released the companion film to her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, this weekend. The Official Release Party of a Showgirl blew The Smashing Machine out of the water, debuting with $33 million in the US and $46 million worldwide.
But it wasn’t just the Swifties that Johnson failed to deal with, either. The battle against Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another was also fought and lost, pushing The Smashing Machine into third place in the US box office charts. The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, delivered a solid second weekend.
Passing the $100 million mark worldwide, it is now the biggest financial success of Anderson’s career. The film also caught the attention of a number of eagle-eyed wrestling fans, who spotted an unexpected reference to a beloved WWE Hall of Famer.
Awards Season Could Provide a Second Life for The Rock’s Oscar Contender
A $6 million opening will be disappointing in any context for an A24 project starring Dwayne Johnson. But fans used to seeing Johnson rake in the big numbers will need to take his latest film with a pinch of salt. The film is clearly not in the same bracket as Moana, Jumanji, or The Fast & Furious franchise. It’s arthouse and unorthodox in its approach and well-positioned to clean up during awards season.
While the film covers the physicality and brutality of the elite MMA scene, the focus here is on the emotional and personal depth as opposed to the action and adrenaline that have defined Johnson’s roles up until this point. The Smashing Machine’s approach has clearly put off fans seeking a typical Dwayne Johnson film. But films seeking awards season prestige often have a sustained second life that begins with their streaming debut and lasts well beyond the Academy Awards, which generally take place in February or March.
As the possibility of an Oscar for Johnson continues to figure in awards season discourse, The Smashing Machine will remain a film at the forefront of many cinephiles’ and wrestling fans’ minds. But for now, Johnson may have to be content with licking the wounds of a chastening box office debut.
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