Dave Meltzer Weighs In On The Smashing Machine, Its Box Office Disappointment

Dave Meltzer recently gave his thoughts on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Mark Kerr biopic The Smashing Machine, including weighing in on its disappointment at the box office. The film, which released last weekend, opened to just $6 million and fell heavily this past weekend despite positive reviews and word of mouth. Meltzer spoke with Andy Perez for Cinema Sidetrack and talked about the film’s release, his thoughts on the movie, and more. You can see some highlights below:

On His Favorite Rock Movies

“As far as favorite Dwayne Johnson movies, that’s a tough one. I watched a lot of them. It’s hard to say my favorite. You know, what’s funny is I like Gridiron Gang a lot. Of all the ones – I don’t know that most people did, but I did like that one. I remember that… I mean, I was pretty good friends with him early in his career. So I was – I probably watched more of the early ones when he was first making his name, but I watched all the Fast and Furious stuff and all that, you know, they’re what they are. You know, they’re super exciting. That’s what they’re supposed to be.

On The Smashing Machine:

“I like this movie more, it reminded me a lot of the movie on the Von Erichs that I saw a couple of years ago. I guess because they’re both A24 movies, they’re both sort of based on reality. This one was more historically accurate than the Von Erich movie, though. That’s the one thing I’ll say is as far as sports movies that try to recreate something, this was this was way more historically accurate than most.”

On how Mark Kerr is depicted:

“I didn’t know Mark Kerr personally. I know from the documentary, but I know his career very well. And yes, I thought that it was a pretty, pretty well done representation of — I mean, it’s exactly what his career was like. They didn’t make up matches. They didn’t make up finishes. Right? They didn’t make up opponents. I mean, this was more famous early career fights. The tournament went exactly how it was.”

On if the story fit the magnitude of the film:

“Evidently not, box office wise. But the other thing is, when he first announced it — and this is years ago — I remember he went to a UFC show and I remember like, when he when he did it, I was dumbfounded. Because Mark Kerr was like, ‘Oh yeah, I remember the documentary and all, but nobody knows Mark Kerr, nobody remembers Mark Kerr.’ And at the end there was no great thing past a guy with relationship troubles and a painkiller addiction… I do think that there are other fighters that would have made more interesting stories, but they — I’m presuming Dwayne saw the documentary and said, ‘This is it.’

On Rock’s next move as an actor:

“I don’t know what his goals are. He’s in his 50s. And I don’t know that — you know, money is probably not a big issue with him, but I don’t know that… I think the thing with him at this stage, because it’s not money, is the motivation to to prove something, you know? And he’s proved he can draw…

“His mentality was – whether it was wrestling or movies – was always at the box office. Not the critics, the box office. Because that’s what he learned from his father and his grandfather and his grandmother, who were in wrestling and they were promoters… So he grew up with that mentality and now it appears that he’s ‘Okay, I conquered this. Now I want to be viewed, you know, I almost go like, ‘I’ve been the Rock, I’ve been Hulk Hogan. Now I want to be Bret Hart.'”

On the film’s box office disappointment:

“It just was not a subject that resonated. That’s I think the story of this. And the other story is that just Dwayne showing up as Dwayne and starring in a movie – that doesn’t mean all the people that watched him in Jumanji and Fast and Furious and all that are going to go. Like, “it’s a Dwayne movie. We got to go Saturday or Friday,” or whatever. That didn’t happen…

“But then it’s like, okay, it’s a lesson. He learned his lesson. We all learned, you know, he’s not bulletproof… The movie’s box office results were essentially saying, ‘Okay, this is Dwayne and we’ll go to see him in these movies, but we’re not following him into these other things. And we don’t know the Mark Kerr story. We don’t know who Mark Kerr is.’ And even MMA fans don’t know Mark Kerr because MMA fans, most of them came in 2005 or later.”

On the greatest modern wrestling-turned-actor:

“Dave Bautista. I would say MJF – it’s too new. I actually just watched that Happy Gilmore 2, and I actually thought he was really funny and everything, but it’s still [too new]. And Becky Lynch was in that one too, but in a more minor role. And MJF was — it wasn’t minor, but it wasn’t giant either. I got a kick out of him.

“John [Cena] is – I mean John’s very likable. He’s got a great look and everything like that. But I think Dave Bautista and Dwayne, those would be the two. The one that I think is the most underrated – never, ever, ever, ever gets the credit is Terry Funk.”