Dwayne Johnson has publicly defended his gritty, awards-season gamble The Smashing Machine after it opened to markedly weak box-office returns.
The film, directed by Benny Safdie and released on 3 October 2025, premiered to strong festival acclaim but floundered commercially in its first weekend. Johnson has taken to his own channels to stress that box-office receipts do not measure the personal or artistic value of the project, citing his emotional investment and the transformative process that he says changed him.
