No offense to Swifties, but the big movie out this week is Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine,” which has seen its initial glowing reviews out of Venice downgraded — now sitting at 65 on Metacritic, 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a B- CinemaScore.
Suffice it to say, things aren’t looking great for Dwayne Johnson’s film at the moment. It only made $1.9M on Friday, not counting Thursday previews. The film, budgeted at over $50M, is expected to earn just $6M+ for its opening weekend — a shocking development for what was supposed to be Johnson’s highly buzzed debut in serious cinema.
Yes, the world — or at least a very small, exponentially tiny part of it — is about to see a very different side of Dwayne Johnson in “The Smashing Machine.” From writer/director Benny Safdie, the sports biopic follows the life of Mark Kerr, the legendary mixed martial artist and UFC pioneer.
The film had initially been tracking to open around $20M. What happened? We’re not entirely sure. Maybe the trailer failed to lure audiences, or maybe after recent streaming junk like “Red Notice” and “Red One,” plus DC’s abysmal “Black Adam,” Johnson has burned his audience one too many times.
Listen, as good as Johnson is as troubled MMA fighter Mark Kerr, the truth is the film is little more than a curiosity because of his playing against type. His fanbase simply isn’t showing up to support his transformative performance. At this point, the only reliable path to box office success for him might be IP: “Fast & Furious,” “Jumanji,” or “Jungle Cruise.”
A24 has had a rough year. “The Smashing Machine” might rival “Eddington” in terms of losses. Then there’s “Death of a Unicorn,” “Opus,” and “The Legend of Ochi.” Even their critically acclaimed titles (“Warfare” and “Sorry, Baby”) underperformed. The studio is probably praying that “Marty Supreme,” which cost $90M, delivers in its Christmas release slot. Otherwise, we could be looking at some big changes at A24.
Regardless, I’d wager that if our readers went to the theaters this weekend, it was either to catch “The Smashing Machine” or to watch “One Battle After Another” for the second (or third, or fourth) time. What did you see this weekend?
Back in May, a Warner Bros. source told me ‘Chapter 2’ wasn't coming out in 2026. It was “not in the plans.” The film has been finished for two years.