Dwayne Johnson’s Chokehold On Hollywood Continues


Dwayne Johnson’s chokehold on Hollywood continues. The opening weekend success of San Andreas, the environmental disaster film, is further proof that he is Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster star. Channel NewsAsia is reporting that the film has already taken in a whopping $53.2 million, with the totals for Sunday nowhere near tallied.

San Andreas has bested last week’s top grossing film, Tomorrowland, by over $20 million.

Not bad for a guy who just 11 years ago was donning wrestling tights as The Rock. Dwayne Johnson’s chokehold inside the squared circle moved on to huge things on movie screens. San Andreas is not the only 2015 blockbuster hit he is a part of.

The latest installment of the Fast and Furious movie series, Furious 7, has raked in nearly $350 million in the U.S. and an estimated $1.5 billion globally.

Talk about bringing in the cash.

It is the idea that the success of Furious 7 has carried over to San Andreas. The movie was expected to do well, being sandwiched between the premieres of child-friendly films such as Tomorrowland and the June 12 release, Jurassic World. Did anyone see this type of success coming?

Dwayne Johnson foresaw his rise but it was not easy, as he tells Melena Ryzik of the New York Times.

“I am going to take a crack at this, and I have to be me, I have to be me.

Getting into Hollywood. I learned that lesson the hard way.”

Dwayne Johnson’s chokehold will now go from the big screen and once again extend to the small screen.

In HBO’s new television series Ballers, Dwayne Johnson will play Spencer Strassmore, the show’s lead character. The storyline will center on Johnson’s character and members of a football team, those active and retired. The pilot episode to Ballers is scheduled to begin airing on June 21. It is his first time having a regular role on a television show.

Dwayne Johnson also serves as the executive producer along with his friend and Pain and Gain costar, Mark Wahlberg.

Can Johnson truly move the needle? HBO surely hopes that he can. It was his box office success that helped convince the executives to pick up Ballers. What San Andreas is drawing in the theaters is making him an undeniable star — one that is beginning to be mentioned among the likes of Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

Dwayne Johnson’s chokehold on Hollywood has already catapulted his film over Clooney’s Tomorrowland in the box office.

As for when wrestling fans will see The Rock’s — ahem, Dwayne Johnson’s — chokehold inside of a squared circle again? The answer to that inconclusive. Just know that as long as Dwayne Johnson’s chokehold on Hollywood continues, he will always be wrestling’s brightest star, regardless if he ever wrestles again.

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