The Rock Responds To The Box Office Performance Of The Smashing Machine

Hollywood megastar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson recently reacted to the box office performance of The Smashing Machine.

The movie, which stars The Rock portraying former MMA fighter Mark Kerr, was released in the United States of America on October 3, 2025. Despite massive expectations, the movie fared poorly at the box office, garnering $11.3 million domestically and $20.2 million worldwide.

However, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Rock claimed that he was never bothered about the box office performance of The Smashing Machine. He said that the sports drama marked a turning point in his career, as he was able to challenge himself for the first time in 20 years.

The former WWE Champion further revealed that he slept peacefully on the night of the release and woke up in the same mental state the next morning. While he acknowledged the film’s underwhelming performance financially, he is not perturbed by it.

Here’s what The Rock said:

“Smashing Machine also represents a turning point in my career that I’ve wanted for a long time: for the first time in my career—20 plus years since The Scorpion King came out—I made a film to challenge myself and to really rip myself open and to go elsewhere and disappear and transform, and not one time did I think about box office. In our world you’re like, ‘S**t, how are we going to look?’ And then Friday night comes and you’re like, ‘Oh man.’ You wake up Saturday, and sometimes you wake up feeling good, and sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh my God, [it] didn’t do well.’ I had not thought about that at all. And 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.”

Meanwhile, The Rock has been away from WWE television since Elimination Chamber: Toronto, where John Cena shockingly turned heel and joined forces with his former rival.

While there seems to be no indication of his return as of today, it will be interesting to see if The Final Boss makes his presence felt on the Road to WrestleMania 42.