>>12392072Prior to Black Adam, he had a reputation as a good face to promote movies. Like, he's a good person to send to Jimmy Fallon. I think that's overrated. He was fortunate enough to stand next to Kevin Hart.
Him being the highest paid man in Hollywood a few years ago was always just a marketing gimmick. It makes no sense because his only successful movies prior to that were pre-existing franchises.
The Mummy was already a thing. He didn't draw eyes to that franchise.
Walking Tall and The Rundown are flops, even though The Rundown is secretly based.
Gridiron Gang is his most honest success story in Hollywood, and that's a mild success at best. And it's a totally forgotten film at this point.
He signed a multi-movie deal with Disney, which is where shit like Tooth Fairy and the failed Witch Mountain reboot came from. Honestly Disney was trapped in a contract with him, not the other way around.
He joined the FF franchise, which was already successful without him. He joined the Jumanji franchise, which was already successful without him.
Since he was in two successful ongoing series, he managed to carny Hollywood into thinking he was a box office draw. He became the highest paid man in Hollywood.
I think San Andreas is what did it, although I'd argue that was an example of audiences hungry for another Day After Tomorrow/2012 style movie, and the actor didn't matter.
Skyscraper is an example of him actually being a draw. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that The Rock isn't popular, I just wanted to make the point that his acting career failed and he carnied it back to life. Digging into his recent box office, he seems to be a significantly bigger draw in Chi-Na. Skyscraper made less than 100 mil in domestic sales.
