Playing troubled mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr in writer/director Bennie Safdie’s biopic/documentary recreation The Smashing Machine did not produce the box office results Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
is used to getting for his movies. In fact, it barely crossed the $20 million mark, which made it the lowest of Johnson’s career.
But while A24 and most of the producers behind The Smashing Machine would have liked Jumanji-like returns, Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg earlier this month that ticket sales didn’t factor into his decision to make the movie:
“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 — 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.“
He probably did think about possibly winning a few major awards for his transformation into Kerr, though. The idea surfaced when the project was announced, and it would have been hard to block out the chatter about a possible Oscar nomination for The Rock around the film‘s release (the name of the podcast the above quote comes from is called Awards Chatter).
People who closely track these things seem to believe The Smashing Machine‘s lackluster box office probably means no Academy Awards nom for the man we last saw on WWE screens at Elimination Chamber, but the Oscar forecast may change after Johnson was nominated for Best Actor in a drama, and co-star Emily Blunt for Best Actress for her performance as Kerr’s partner Dawn Staples, at The Golden Globes today (Nov. 8)
Administered by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes don’t have the Oscars cachet… if an Academy Award is the World title, a Golden Globe is more like the U.S. or Intercontinental belt. That’s partly because the Globes have always been a bit more populist, and/or seen as leaning more toward international tastes. But it’s also because of a recent corruption scandal that led to a 2023 restructuring of the organizations that oversees the awards.
Regardless of any of that, it’s a big honor. If Johnson can win (against Train Dreams’ Joel Edgerton, Frankenstein’s Oscar Isaac, Sinners’ Michael B. Jordan*, The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura, and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’s Jeremy Allen White), a Globe is often a precursor for an Oscar victory.
But we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. The Globes ceremony is Jan. 11, 2026. Oscar noms will be out on Jan. 22.
* I haven’t seen all the nominees’ performances yet, but my inner film bro demands I share my opinion that Jordan’s double performance in this badass, beautiful Ryan Coogler flick is being slept on.
