Dwayne Johnson remains proud that he took a swing with The Smashing Machine.
Hitting theaters over the weekend, writer-director Benny Safdie‘s A24 feature centers on Johnson’s portrayal of UFC Hall of Famer Mark Kerr as he navigates his fighting career and opioid addiction. The film, which carries awards season aspirations, collected $6 million in its opening frame, marking the lowest box office debut in Johnson’s career.
The star took to Instagram on Monday to express his appreciation for his involvement with the project, despite the muted commercial response. “From deep in my grateful bones, thank you to everyone who has watched The Smashing Machine,” Johnson wrote. “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.”
The Smashing Machine, which co-stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s then-girlfriend, earned a rousing response when it premiered over the summer at the Venice Film Festival. Johnson and Blunt continue to remain in the mix as Oscar contenders for the movie.
In his review of The Smashing Machine for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Jordan Mintzer wrote of Johnson’s performance, “He manages to go deep here without overdoing it, killing the audience with kindness as a benign warrior who suffers from one scene to the next, triumphing briefly in the ring before succumbing to addiction and/or romantic grief.”
During a recent interview with THR, Kerr praised Johnson for the personal connections that he makes with everyone he meets: “He’s completely, completely giving himself to you in the conversation he’s having with you, which is just amazing.”
Taylor Swift appears to be enjoying the role of box office queen.
She’s returning to theaters this weekend with a special event pic promoting her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, which comes out Friday. The big-screen album release party, which will also feature the world premiere of the music video for Showgirl single “The Fate of Ophelia,” music videos and behind-the-scenes footage, is expected to tower over the competition and win the relatively quiet Oct. 3-5 box office race with anywhere from $25 million to $35 million, if not more. Tracking suggests $35 million, while distributor AMC Theatres — which also partnered with the superstar musical artist on her record-breaking concert pic Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — is being more conservative in suggesting $25 million to $30 million.
Either way, that’s well ahead of opening weekend projections for its closest competitor, the Dwayne Johnson-led wrestling drama The Smashing Machine. That’s not exactly a surprise, considering Johnson’s latest outing is a specialty pic from A24, versus the sort of wide-appeal action movie The Rock is best known for. Smashing Machine, which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival as this year’s awards season kicked off, is tracking to open in the $12 million to $14 million range.
Directed by Benny Safdie, Smashing Machine reunites Johnson with his Jungle Cruise co-star and good friend Emily Blunt, who played a key role in bringing Johnson and Safdie together. The film is based on the real-life story of Mark Kerr, a former college wrestler who battled trauma and an addiction to painkillers during the early years of the UFC.
Another player to watch this weekend is James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, which is being rereleased exclusively in 3D. Like Swift’s team, Cameron and partner 20th Century/Disney are using the box office for promotional purposes: this Christmas, Avatar: Ash and Fire opens.
Cameron’s Avatar movies have generally done well when rereleased, and this time out, the focus on Imax is an added bonus. The movie will be playing in 90 percent of all Imax auditoriums domestically but will have to share Dolby Cinema screens and other premium large-format auditoriums with the Showgirl release party. Way of Water is projected to earn $3 million to $4 million domestically from 2,100 theaters; rivals think it could approach $5 million.
Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl is only playing in cinemas for three days, and Swift’s team went to great lengths to keep the project top secret until the 11th hour (they almost succeeded, but not quite), much to the chagrin of other distributors, such as A24 or even Disney, who don’t like last-minute surprises even if the idea of a live audience watching a viewing party on the big screen is a far cry from the sort of frenzy surrounding her Eras Tour. She announced the Oct. 3-5 special event on Sept. 19 in a well-orchestrated social media post informing fans that advance tickets would go on sale that day at 12:12 local time for $12, in keeping with Swift’s longtime relationship with numbers (Showgirl is her 12th album). Consumers can expect to pay more for Imax and other premium large-format screenings.
“I hereby invite you to a *dazzling* soirée, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl: Oct 3 – Oct 5 only in cinemas,” Swift wrote across social media Sept. 19. “You’ll get to see the exclusive world premiere of the music video for my new single ‘The Fate of Ophelia,’ along with never before seen behind-the-scenes footage of how we made it, cut by cut explanations of what inspired this music and the brand new lyric videos from my new album The Life of a Showgirl. Looks like it’s time to brush off that Eras Tour outfit or orange cardigan…. Tickets are on sale now. Dancing is optional but very much encouraged.”
Like her tour itself, The Eras Tour film was a phenomenon when opening in 2023 to a huge $93.2 million domestically on its way becoming the top grossing concert film of all time with $261.6 million in global ticket sales. Swift and her team financed the $15 million project, bypassing the Hollywood studio system and partnering with AMC Theatres, the country and world’s largest cinema circuit. AMC Theatres Distribution is releasing Showgirl in partnership with Variance Films in the U.S. and Canada, and with Piece of Magic Entertainment in other international markets.
This weekend, the one-hour-and-30-minute film also opens in its first 18 international markets. It will continue its international rollout throughout October.
Showtimes begin Oct. 3 — the day of the album’s release — at 3 p.m. local time.
Both Avatar and Smashing Machine will host Thursday previews.
Black Bear’s new theatrical distribution operation has added another film to its growing slate: Jason Statham‘s Shelter.
The action-thriller will open in theaters Jan. 30, 2026, the company announced Wednesday.
Ric Roman Waugh (Greenland, Angel Has Fallen) directed Shelter from a script by Ward Perry. The cast also includes Bodhi Rae, who stars in fall film festival darling Hamnet, Naomi Ackie (Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody) and Bill Nighy.
The story follows a reclusive man who lives in a remote house by the sea. But when he rescues a young girl from drowning in a terrible storm, he unwittingly sets off a chain reaction that soon brings violence his way, forcing him to confront choices from his past.
Black Bear’s U.S. distribution arm launched in July, following the indie studio’s successful foray into distribution internationally, where subsidiary Elevation Pictures is the top independent theatrical distributor in the U.K., Ireland and Canada. The U.S. operation intends to release up to a dozen films a year, blending filmmaker-driven fare with wide-release action and genre films, such as Shelter.
“Jason is an icon who continues to be at the top of his game,” said Benjamin Kramer, Black Bear’s U.S. distribution president. “Bringing him together with Ric, another distinguished force in the action space, along with a gripping story and an exceptional group of fellow cast members, promises to make this a must-see event.”
Black Bear’s U.S. slate also includes the Sydney Sweeney-led drama Christy, which opens in theaters Nov. 7, following its premiere earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Daniel Roher’s critically acclaimed romantic thriller Tuner starring Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman (the latter is set for release sometime next year).
Shelter is produced by Black Bear, Punch Palace Pictures, CineMachine and Stampede Ventures production. Individual producers include Statham, Black Bear’s John Friedberg, Brendon Boyea, Greg Silverman and Jon Berg. Black Bear head Teddy Schwarzman, Michael Heimler, Andrew Golov and Mike Shanks are exec producing alongside Waugh, Rachael Cole, Volodymyr Artemenko, Yevgen Stupka, Macdara Kelleher, Victor Hadida, Gideon Yu and Elizabeth A. Bell.
Park Chan-wook’s anticipated black comedy thriller No Other Choice opened at the top of Korea’s theatrical box office over the weekend, earning $4.6 million from Friday to Sunday. The film launched in the country Wednesday (Sept. 24) on a little over 2,000 screens and has earned a healthy $7.5 million to date. The solid start — significantly better than the $2.4 million Park’s previous feature Decision to Leave brought in during its first weekend in 2022 — marks the second-biggest opening by a Korean film in the home market this year, behind only Pil Gam-sung’s comedy-horror My Daughter Is a Zombie, which debuted in July with $8.3 million.
A passion project for Park that took nearly two decades to produce, No Other Choice premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, earning some of the strongest reviews of the festival during a notably strong edition. It makes its next major international showing at the New York Film Festival next week. Neon will release the film later this year in North America.
A jet-black social satire, No Other Choice follows veteran paper mill manager You Man-su (Korean screen icon Lee Byung-hun), a devoted family man who spirals after being laid off and discarded by a ruthless job market. Humiliated by failed interviews and mocked by corporate gatekeepers, he resolves to claw back dignity by any means necessary — a decision that sends him down a very Park Chan-wook-esque path of violence. With Son Ye-jin as his charismatic and resilient wife and Park Hee-soon as the contemptuous foreman who becomes his nemesis, the film could scarcely be more timely in the way it skewers the indignities of contemporary work culture, the fragility of masculine pride, and the absurd shapes the survival instinct must take in our late-capitalist, AI-encroached present day.
No Other Choice pulled ahead of a pair of popular imported anime titles in the weekend box office race in Korea. Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc, a feature anime adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s best-selling fantasy manga, also opened Wednesday and has earned $3.5 million (with $2.5 million of the total coming over the weekend). In third place, anime sensation Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle continued to draw audiences more than a month after its Aug. 22 Korean debut, adding just shy of $1 million for a massive $38.7 million local total (worldwide, the film has brought in $605 million, the most ever by a Japanese film).
Train to Busan hitmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s dark indie experiment The Ugly claimed fourth place for the frame, earning $673,000 for a three-weekend total of $7.5 million. Made on a microbudget but featuring an all-star creative team, the richly layered film tells the story of a son investigating the mysterious death of his mother during Korea’s economic boom of the 1970s.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another, easily takes the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office with an estimated $22.4 million plus opening in North America in over 3,600 locations. Internationally, it has earned $26.1 million for an expected global cume of $48.5 million.
The film cost a reported $130 million before marketing costs, meaning an opening in the low-$20 million range can easily be seen as disappointing. However, it can also be read as a solid start for an original movie from an auteur director with an R-rating and an almost three-hour runtime. One Battle is also seen as a major awards contender and is likely to generate press and word-of-mouth for many months. The film’s second weekend performance will be a better indicator in terms of its staying power.
One thing is certain: The One Battle box office was buoyed by audiences seeking out premium formats. The film was offered in 70mm, IMAX 70mm, IMAX Digital and VistaVision (albeit on four screens). The movie earned $4.6 million in North America from 412 IMAX screens, or roughly 20 percent of the film’s total domestic ticket sales.
One Battle stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed-up and burnt-out revolutionary who is called back into action when his daughter (Chase Infiniti) is kidnapped by his former nemesis (Sean Penn). Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor round out the cast.
The film has opened to universal praise, with One Battle boasting a 95 Metacritic score and an A CinemaScore. The Hollywood Reporter’s review of the film from Richard Lawson reads, “One Battle After Another is a furious film, a richly engaging and persuasive polemic from a filmmaker who has never shied from provocation but who has not before spoken so directly to his audience.”
One Battle is director Anderson’s biggest opening weekend in a career that spans Boogie Nights to Licorice Pizza. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is his highest-earning title to date, with $40 million in North American ticket sales.
As for Warners, the studio has been on a hot streak as of late, beginning with Minecraft ($957 million, globally), followed by Ryan Coogler’s Sinners ($366 million, globally), and New Line offering Weapons ($264 million, globally).
Coming in at No. 2 at the domestic box office will be the weekend’s other new offering: Universal and DreamWorks’ Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie. The G-rated film, which carries a reported price tag of $32 million, is tracking to earn $13.7 million in its debut.
Gabby’s Dollhouse, a combination of live-action and CG animation, is based on the wildly popular streaming animated children’s series of the same name that debuted in 2021 and has since premiered eleven seasons (the twelfth season is due out in November on Netflix). The film stars Laila Lockhart Kraner, reprising her role from the series, along with Gloria Estefan and Kristen Wiig.
Internationally, the film opened in 37 territories, including Australia and Mexico. It earned $5.6 million for a current global haul of $19.3 million.
Elsewhere, Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures’ Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which had a record-setting U.S. opening of $70 million, came in at No. 3, making $7.1 million from 2,984 venues over the weekend. The film’s domestic total sits at $118.1 million after three weeks in theaters.
Warners title The Conjuring: Last Rites, now in its fourth weekend, landed at the No. 4 spot this weekend with $6.9 million in domestic ticket sales, bringing its domestic cume to $161.5 million and $435 million globally.
September 28, 9:06 a.m. Updated with new estimates.
This story was originally published on Sept. 27 at 9:04 a.m.
Anime hit Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – the Movie Infinity Castle is the champion of this weekend’s box office, topping the Jordan Peele-produced Him for no. 1.
Demon Slayer, which set a record $70 million U.S. opening last weekend, is looking to bring in $17.3 million this weekend, a tumble of 77 percent but enough for a victory. Him, from Universal and Peele’s Monkeypaw, is projected to end the weekend with $13.5 million, down from earlier estimates of $15 million.
Demon Slayer hails from the Sony-owned Crunchyroll, and is already a global smash. It now stands as the top-grossing anime movie of all time globally, with more than $555 million.
But the weekend brought bad news from other corners of the Sony empire, with the high-profile Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell romantic fantasy A Big Bold Beautiful Journey bombing with a projected $3.5 million, sixth-place finish. Journey centers on a man and a woman who relive key moments from their lives. The feature is Robbie’s first starring role since Barbie became a phenomenon two years ago and helped revive the box office. The film earned a B- CinemaScore from audiences and tepid reviews. Kogonada directed the Blacklist script by Seth Reiss.
Him likewise earned mediocre reviews. It stars Tyriq Withers as a top NFL quarterback prospect whose career is upended when he is blind sided by an attacker and suffers brain trauma. He finds a potential way back to greatness in the form of Marlon Wayans’ GOAT quarterback, who offers to train him at his private compound. The psychological horror movie hails from director Justin Tipping and received a C- CinemaScore from audiences.
Rounding out the top five are New Line’s The Conjuring: The Last Rites, now in its third weekend and expected to earn $12.1 million; Lionsgate’s The Long Walk, with $6.3 million; and Focus’ Downton Abbey: The Finale, with $6 million.
Sept. 21, 8:13 a.m. Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published on Sept. 20 at 8:10 a.m.
