Report: The Rock took ‘significant’ paycut for ‘Smashing Machine’
The Rock reportedly took a paycut for ‘The Smashing Machine.’
Deadline released a story on Monday highlighting the film’s dismal drawing power, only earning $5.9 million in its opening weekend, making it The Rock’s lowest drawing film to date. The article mentions Rock, who considered the movie a personal project, took a significant paycut for the film.
“Johnson took a $4M fee, significantly below his historical $20M+ paycheck plus points. Sources say he even gave a portion of his paycheck to Emily Blunt and [Mark] Kerr,” they wrote.
The article also mentions that despite the low numbers, the film is only estimated to lose around $10-$15 million dollars due to tax credits in Vancouver and New Mexico. The losses. according to the report, will be based on how much film studio A24 would want to push the movie ahead of awards season.
Earlier on Monday, Rock wrote on social media that the film “changed his life” while pointing out the film’s less than stellar opening weekend.
“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,” he wrote. “And I will always run to that opportunity. Truth is this film has changed my life.”
Smashing Machine opened third for the weekend behind ‘Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl’ at $33 million and ‘One Battle After Another’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio which opened at $11.1 million.
Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.