The Rock may have a laundry list of accomplishments under his belt, but he’s not guaranteed to win every time. The Smashing Machine was poised to be a breakout film for The Final Boss, but then Swifties took over the theaters.
Taylor Swift’s theatrical event The Official Release Party of a Showgirl earned $34 million in the United States and $16 million internationally, totaling more than $50 million in its global opening weekend. That overtook the entire weekend, which featured The Rock’s new movie.
The Smashing Machine brought in about $5.9 million in its opening weekend across more than 3,300 theaters. The film’s box office numbers fell way short of expectations, and it was the lowest opening weekend of Johnson’s career for an A24 production.
During his appearance on New Heights, The Rock spoke to Travis Kelce about how he will go down as one of the best tight ends in NFL history. Then he transitioned quickly to touch on how Kelce’s fiancé, Taylor Swift, deserves some congratulations.
“You will go down as one of the greatest of all time. And by the way—congrats to your girl on the weekend. I know what a crushing weekend she had. It’s awesome. Life of a show girl.”
Travis Kelce smiled as The Rock responded, “My daughters are listening to the album now, it’s very cool.” We have to wonder if The Rock has heard that infamous song Taylor Swift wrote for Kelce on that album.
The Rock’s movie, The Smashing Machine, was an intense production, where The Rock had to dive deep into the mindset of a pro fighting legend who struggled with addiction and personal demons. However, Taylor Swift’s The Official Release Party of a Showgirl was a compilation of lyrics videos for her new album along with track-by-track introductions from Taylor and the Fate of Ophelia music video premiere.
To put this in another light, The Smashing Machine was produced with an estimated budget of $50 million. In comparison, Taylor Swift’s The Official Release Party of a Showgirl had a different strategy. They ran the film as a limited-time theatrical event rather than a standard film theatrical run. The estimated cost for Swift’s project was around $15 million.
Taylor Swift has a lot to be excited about. Not only does she have a 6-part docuseries starting on Disney+ on December 12, which will come with a new version of The Eras Tour concert film, but her album is doing phemonomally well. Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl sold over 3.4 million pure album copies, the highest single-week total for pure sales since 1991. Preliminary data shows the album also exceeded 3.5 million total equivalent album units, setting a new one-week record.
The Rock is very smart to congratulate Taylor Swift for her accomplishments. After all, he knows that Swifties buy tickets to his movies as well, as long as Taylor isn’t competing with him, that is.
Do you think that The Rock’s The Smashing Machine will pick up and become a cult classic on streaming? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
October 13, 2025 12:24 pm
