Currently, Dwayne Johnson is the world’s largest movie star. Not to exaggerate, but for two consecutive years (2019 and 2020), Johnson was the highest-paid actor in the world.
But he doesn’t make all of his money from movies, you may object. It simply goes to show that he’s navigating his own route, creating his own brand, and redefining what it means to be a superstar. You may include him among the most bankable movie stars, since people pay to see him and not simply a character (e.g., Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Chris Hemsworth as Thor) on screen.
Johnson, Denzel Washington, and Leonardo DiCaprio are the only ones on the list at this moment. All due respect to Washington’s tequila and DiCaprio’s sports apparel, but no one is purchasing them. However, the majority of Johnson’s income still comes from the movie business. Averaging $312 million globally, his box office profits total $4.2 billion in the United States and $12 billion worldwide.
But despite his moniker, The Rock, he’s not indestructible. He’s just tough. Some of Johnson’s early attempts to make the tough transition from wrestler to movie star have left scars on his reputation.
So, for perspective, the rankings below include an estimate of how much each of Johnson’s films earned or lost in order to be profitable (to pay marketing and distribution expenditures). Although the overall rankings are based on international box office receipts, there are a few notable exceptions: You’d best study up on The Rock’s history because he may be President one day. As well as the blockbusters, here are the flops.
Bomb: The Rundown
Dwayne Johnson (then known as “The Rock”) made his big-screen debut as the villain in “The Mummy Returns.” Mummy Returns opened to $68 million and grossed $435 million worldwide, despite Johnson’s brief appearance in the film, which lasted less than the time it takes to pronounce “Haku Machente” (excluding the CG monster at the conclusion). In the prequel “The Scorpion King,” Johnson earned $5.5 million, which may seem like beer and pizza money to us today, but was at the time the biggest compensation ever paid to a first-time starring actor.
As a result of his success, Johnson has earned $165 million globally. As a result, “The Rundown” became for him what Eddie Murphy’s “Best Defense” was for Eddie Murphy: a mind-boggling blunder during a meteoric rise to stardom.
On Rotten Tomatoes, “The Rundown” has a good 69 percent reviewers score. As a result of this, “one-man army” action pictures, such as those starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in their prime, were supplanted by superhero movies by 2003. As a result, the film’s $80 million worldwide gross would have been impressive if it had been made on a budget that made sense. A $85 million film, “The Rundown” underperformance nearly forced The Rock to return to the wrestling ring.
Hit: Hobbs & Shaw
Universal Pictures, which produced “Fast & Furious,” gained a lot of money, despite the fact that the movie generated conflict in the family. The Fast & Furious spin-off was one of the few bright spots in the dismal summer box office of 2019, when just much every movie not released by Disney failed at best (“Godzilla: King of the Monsters”) or bombed at worst (“MIB: International” and “X-Men – Dark Phoenix”).
As a result of Johnson’s global renown, “Hobbs and Shaw” was a huge hit. In all due respect, a Pearch & Parker film is unlikely to do quite as well as “Tyrese Gibson’s” and Chris “Ludacri’s” Bridges’ (unless they spent the entire movie flying a Pontiac Fiero in space).
Which brings us to the box office performance of “Hobbs & Shaw.” In spite of a $20 million budget, “Hobbs & Shaw” grossed $173 million domestically and $760 million internationally. A predicted $360 million was made by “Hobbs & Shaw.”
Bomb: Doom
2005 was a transitional year for Johnson. When “The Rundown” and “Walking Tall” failed at the movie office, his hopes of becoming the next Arnold Schwarzenegger were dashed. His “macho guy in a kid’s movie” phase, on the other hand, had not yet begun (“Race To Witch Mountain”, “Tooth Fairy”). “Doom” was found in this muck. Doom is an apt title for this film because that’s precisely what it brought in terms of critical and financial success. There was an 18% critics score and a 34% audience score for the video game adaptation, thus it didn’t do well on the big screen.
It’s not like video game movies are meant to be good. If they’re not good, they’re meant to earn money, regardless of whether they’re good. This was not the case with “Doom.” In spite of a $70 million budget (which was a terrible idea to begin with), “Doom” debuted to a paltry $15 million in the United States and Canada.
Furthermore, it was a front-loaded film, earning just $28 million in the United States and $58 million internationally, meaning it likely lost $82 million in total. Johnson was merely a supporting role in “Doom,” which was ultimately Karl Urban’s picture. People flocked to watch it because of The Rock, even though he only appeared for a few minutes. Many did not, as evidenced by the statistics, though.
