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Dwayne Johnson is swinging back into theaters with a movie unlike anything he’s done before. And, his new film, The Smashing Machine, will be going head-to-head with a Taylor Swift movie that’s not really even a movie. Can the Rock survive? Or is what Taylor’s cooking too strong? Here’s how much we can expect The Smashing Machine to make on opening weekend.
What is The Smashing Machine’s Projected Opening Weekend Box Office?
The Smashing Machine will be released by studio A24 on October 3 in theaters nationwide. However, A24, despite its excellent reputation, is still very much an indie studio, meaning this movie isn’t tracking for a massive opening. Instead, The Smashing Machine is expected to have a modest $8 million to $15 million opening, according to Variety. This figure puts it behind projections for Taylor Swift’s album-release cinema event, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. (To be clear, the Official Release Party of a Showgirl isn’t a true film, but rather, an in-person promotional film for the new Swift album The Life of a Showgirl.)
What is The Smashing Machine’s Rotten Tomatoes Score?
The Smashing Machine is a biopic about a real MMA fighter named Mark Kerr (played by Johnson), and is a dramatization of a documentary with a similar title: The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr, which was released in 2002. The new movie is directed by Benny Safdie and co-stars Emily Blunt.
Currently, The Smashing Machine holds an impressive 78 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. This includes, as of this writing, only reviews from film critics. The audience score and box office will, perhaps, tell another story.
The Smashing Machine opens on October 3, 2025.
This story was originally reported by Men’s Journal on Oct 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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