The Rock Kicks Butt
Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock is a charismatic actor, with charm and humor to spare. He has proved his leading man potential again and again, but he just can’t seem to get audiences to follow him. His career was on a major downslide until he was saved by the most unlikely of sources: a little girl.
The Scorpion King, The Rundown and Walking Tall
The above films represent the peak and rapid decline of Dwayne Johnson’s action career. The Scorpion King is The Rock’s highest grossing starring role ever, but it would take another five years for Johnson to even come close to the $91 million domestic gross of that film. Instead he starred in a series of less and less successful action films. There was The Rundown, a fairly well-received film critically that nevertheless only grossed $47 at the domestic box office. This was followed by Walking Tall, a fairly enjoyable but routine film with the near identical gross of $46 million. The Rock’s next and last action film was Doom, the adaptation of the popular video game, which flopped with only $28 million in theatres. It just seemed The Rock couldn’t get any better grosses out of his starring roles, as his audience continued to erode.
The New Rock, Be Cool, Gridiron Gang
The Rock tried to reinvent himself with other roles, a comic supporting role as a gay character in Be Cool and an inspirational sports lead in Gridiron Gang. None of these roles got Johnson the attention or box office to lift up his sagging star.
The Rock Finds Success With The Gameplan
So The Rock tried one more genre; the cutesy family film. The former pro-wrestler found career revival by appearing in a comedy about an NFL quarterback who discovered his eight year old daughter. It was certainly an unlikely path back to the top. Critics reviled the film, giving it a 27% positive rating on critic meter rottentomatoes.com. But audiences responded, and The Gameplan grossed $90 million domestically. The Rock had returned. Five years after he lit up multiplexes slicing and dicing villains in The Scorpion King Dwayne Johnson had resurrected his career by entertaining families in a kid-friendly comedy.
The Next Move, and Movies, For The Rock
Entertainment Weekly named The Rock in their feature on “The Next A-List” of stars. This certainly wouldn’t have happened without the success The Gameplan. Judging by Johnson’s upcoming projects, it appears he will still dabble in action, but with a good dose of his newly successful family comedy. The Rock will appear in the spy spoof comedy Get Smart this summer, followed by another kid-friendly Disney picture (The Race to Witch Mountain), a comedy (The Tooth Fairy), and a comic-book adaptation (he will play Black Adam in the Shazam movie). Will audiences ever get to see The Rock drop the smack down again in a rough-n-tumble action movie? This remains to be seen. But at least he’ll have the chance to, because of an eight year old savior.
