Over the weekend, Benny Safdie and Dwayne Johnson‘s new film “The Smashing Machine” was only able to earn a meager $6 million during its domestic opening weekend (A24 releases aren’t exactly known for their huge numbers, mind you). The actor has taken to social media to share a rather calm and introspective response to the film struggling to be a commercial success out of the gate for the dramatic biopic of MMA fighter Mark Kerr.
“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,” Johnson said in a new Instagram post praising Safdie. “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.”
Johnson, for his part, has been quite vocal recently about being taken seriously as an actor and wanting to evolve his craft (Safide won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival). So, despite all the weird, catty, and gleeful responses to the movie’s underwhelming box office take (hardly a reflection of the movie’s quality or his performance), it does come off like Johnson is attempting to be the bigger person here and not letting the noise get the best of him.
With a modest budget of reportedly $50 million, there isn’t as large a hurdle for “The Smashing Machine” to earn back its money compared to a studio blockbuster. But given that subsequent weekends traditionally don’t overperform for smaller dramatic pics compared to their first weekend, things aren’t looking good. We also don’t have a great idea of how the movie will do overseas, as we’re still waiting on international box office numbers.
We’re reminded that Johnson is still set to reunite with Safdie for “Lizard Music” and is attached to play a California guru in the thriller “Breakthrough,” which had Darren Aronofsky (“Caught Stealing”) circling as director. So, we’re not terribly concerned that Johnson is going to buck these career-defining opportunities for quick and easy franchise wins. After the dust settles on awards season, who knows if there will be a demand for a re-release (this does happen), as maybe the general public wasn’t exactly convinced by the marketing and mostly positive reviews alone.
Anyways, the future still looks bright for Johnson, and we applaud him for setting out to make something more character-driven than his usual projects.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
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- Christopher Marc
