Dwayne Johnson reacts to ‘Smashing Machine’ box office flop

Dwayne Johnson isn’t looking to throw punches.

The actor, 53, starred as real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the sports drama “Smashing Machine.” The project, directed by Benny Safdie, follows Mark (Johnson) as he “reaches the peak of his career but faces personal hardships along the way,” per the synopsis.

After the film opened at the box office this past weekend, it raked in $6 million. This marked the lowest box office debut for Johnson yet.

“From deep in my grateful bones, thank you to everyone who has watched ‘The Smashing Machine,’” the “Moana” star penned on Instagram on Monday.

“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. And I will always run to that opportunity.”

He continued, “It was my honor to transform in this role for my director Benny Safdie @bowedtie. Thank you brother for believing in me. Truth is this film has changed my life.”

“Smashing Machine” also stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s then-girlfriend, Dawn Staples. Despite poor box office numbers, the project received a standing ovation after it premiered at the Venice Film Festival over the summer.

Both Johnson and Blunt. 42, have garnered Oscar buzz for their roles.

Johnson has starred in a slew of box office hits including 2016’s “Moana,” which brought in $687 million worldwide, and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (2017) which earned over $962 million.

“Fast X” in 2023 brought in about $146 million domestically in the U.S. and Canada.

While filming the movie, which took place in the 1990s, the “Red Notice” alum took some real life punches.

“At one point, I said to Dwayne, ‘I don’t want to cut away. I think it’s important that we see him get hit,’” Safdie, 39, told The Post. “We talked about this early on, the one moment when he was actually going to get punched in the face.”

The scene that showed Mark get hit in the face, The Rock said to Safdie, “OK this is it.”

“Dwayne said to the [stuntman playing the opposing] fighter, ‘Yoko, you’ve got to hit me.’ Yoko was, like, ‘I’m sorry, sir. I’m not going to do that.’ Dwayne said, ‘You have to. You know [where to hit me] to not break my jaw or kill me. Give it to me!’”

Safdie added, “He gets hit in the head for real. It doesn’t look the way a fake punch would look.”

The director also touched on how he told Johnson that the star had to get even bigger for the role.  

“Dwayne is a big guy, and Mark is a bigger guy. So, I told Dwayne that he needs to get puffier. He said, ‘Okay, give me four months.’ Dwayne built himself up to have the body that Mark had – and he changed his body based on the fights he was having.”

Johnson put on 30 pounds of muscle, to which Safdie confessed, “that he was acting with his back.”

“My wife got me an early UFC shirt that reads ‘As real as it gets’ on the back,” said Safdie, who was approached by Johnson to do this movie. “That was my main motto. This whole thing needs to look like it really happened.”