There are some myths you hear repeated so many times during your life, you assume they must be true.<\/p>\n
People should drink eight glasses of water per day.<\/p>\n
George Washington had wooden teeth.<\/p>\n
Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson is America\u2019s favorite actor. <\/p>\n
Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson has become the King of Flops. Andrew H. Walker\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
About that last one: Hollywood has clung to this tenet like fingers to a cliffside the last 10 years. It\u2019s mystifying. I\u2019ve never been anywhere that I\u2019ve heard so much of a whisper of, \u201cI love the Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps I\u2019ve just been wandering into to the wrong places, like organic wine bars.<\/p>\n
But, no. The 54-year-old wrestler-turned-thespian \u2014 wrespian? \u2014 consistently underwhelms where it matters most: at the box office. And yet he\u2019s still one of Hollywood\u2019s highest paid performers. In 2024, Johnson actually held the No. 1 slot, taking home a reported $88 million.<\/p>\n
\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohnny Oleksinski<\/p>\n
It sure does pay to be the Scorpion King of Flops.<\/p>\n
The guy\u2019s made so many bombs, he could be a weapons factory.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s latest project to get KO punched was last weekend\u2019s \u201cMoana,\u201d Disney\u2019s live-action remake of the 2016 cartoon, which had a three-day domestic opening of just $43 million and a RottenTomatoes score of 31%. These are existential crisis numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMoana\u201d grossed just $43 domestically in its opening weekend. Disney via AP<\/p>\n
Conservative estimates have the disaster losing $100-125 million for the studio. The video clip of Johnson\u2019s character Maui\u2019s song \u201cYou\u2019re Welcome,\u201d which has been widely shared online, will have you losing your lunch.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoana\u201d isn\u2019t an isolated island for the Rock either.<\/p>\n
His last five years, save for a couple voice roles, have been littered with duds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s string of duds include \u201cRed One.\u201d \u00a9Amazon\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
The Christmas brick of coal \u201cRed One\u201d <\/a>in 2024, the year Johnson was top paid, grossed a measly $186 million against a massive budget of more than $200 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n The godawful DC Comics movie \u201cBlack Adam,\u201d <\/a>in which Johnson barely moved his face in the title role, was another bomb \u2014 and one of the final nails in the DC Extended Universe coffin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Disney\u2019s family friendly \u201cJungle Cruise\u201d <\/a>and \u201cRed Notice\u201d on Netflix <\/a>added to the resume of failures. His snooze-o-rama attempt at a prestige picture in 2025, \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d <\/a>got neither butts in seats nor an Oscar nomination for him.<\/p>\n Disney\u2019s \u201cJungle Cruise,\u201d which also starred Emily Blunt, underperformed. AP<\/p>\n Why is the Rock tumbling?<\/p>\n The man is facing several sudden hurdles.<\/p>\n One is that good acting appeals forever, while fun personalities do not. Johnson is a star, not an actor, and the public chews up personas and spits \u2018em out without a second thought.\u00a0<\/p>\n His monotonous, macho, eyebrow-dependent performances have worn thin. And his repetitive schtick, much as Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s was after a while, is of a different time. Sorry, Dwayne, the culture has moved on. You should\u2019ve ran for governor of California.<\/p>\n