“On Monday, the 53-year-old actor addressed his fans in an Instagram post, in which he thanked moviegoers for supporting his latest project in spite of the low turnout.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
On Monday, the 53-year-old actor addressed his fans in an Instagram post, in which he thanked moviegoers for supporting his latest project in spite of the low turnout.
He also said he ‘can’t control box office results’ as he acknowledged the disappointing performance at the same time Taylor Swift released an 89-minute feature called The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.
The singer’s film coincided with the release of her 12th studio album, The Life of A Showgirl, and left The Rock’s movie — as well as Leonardo DiCaprio’s new dramedy One Battle After Another — in the dust.
This comes after his A24 drama film premiered on Friday, October 3 and brought in $6 million at the domestic box office, the lowest box office debut of his career after being ‘knocked out’ by Swift, according to Variety.
In the Benny Safdie-directed sports drama biopic, The Rock portrays MMA fighter Mark Kerr and stars opposite Emily Blunt.
‘From deep in my grateful bones, thank you to everyone who has watched The Smashing Machine,’ he wrote in his caption.
‘In our storytelling world, you can’t control box office results,’ he continued.
‘But what I realized you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go elsewhere,’ he added. ‘And I will always run to that opportunity.’
The professional wrestler also wrote: ‘It was my honor to transform into this role for my director Benny Safdie. Thank you brother for believing in me.
‘Truth is this film has changed my life,’ he added. ‘With deep gratitude, respect and radical empathy, dj.’
The Smashing Machine came in third place in the domestic box office during its opening weekend.
Johnson’s biopic trailed behind Swift’s music release and DiCaprio’s action thriller with an all-star cast.
The pop superstar’s The Official Release Party of a Showgirl made $33 million over the weekend.
Meanwhile, DiCaprio’s movie earned $11 million in its second weekend in theaters, according to Box Office Mojo.
The Rock also shared more social media posts, sharing a video of him and Safdie surprising fans at a Los Angeles movie theater.
‘Just two joy bombs surprising fans at our local theater,’ he wrote alongside the video, which showed him meeting and snapping photos with fans before the film started playing.
‘That’s how my Smashing Machine director and I rolled into our opening weekend.’ At the beginning and end of the video, he embraced Safdie, who was walking around wearing the movie poster on display.
‘Smashing Machine sandwich board worn proudly!! F#%king love my guy!! Thanks again to everyone who supported us and have been so moved by our film. Your reactions mean everything to us.’
He also shared a video of his Mexico City hotel room view shortly thereafter amid his promo tour for the biopic.
‘Morning meditation in Mexico City. I can really feel the elevation and altitude when I’m doing my breathwork. Wow. Great to be here, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, and discussing our film.’
Last month, the actor also shared another social media post and opened up about how working on the biopic changed his life.
He said he learned ‘radical empathy’ from Safdie, and discussed how working on The Smashing Machine affected him.
He said the director and portraying Mark Kerr ‘taught me a deeper level of compassion because at the end of the day you never know what kind of struggles and pain people are going through. And truth is, everyone’s going through something.’