Dwayne The Rock Johnson is one of Hollywoods top-paid actors and the King of Flops

There are some myths you hear repeated so many times during your life, you assume they must be true.People should drink eight glasses of water per day.George Washington had wooden teeth.Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is America’s favorite actor.About that last one: Hollywood has clung to this tenet like fingers to a cliffside the last 10 years.

It’s mystifying.I’ve never been anywhere that I’ve heard so much of a whisper of, “I love the Rock.”Perhaps I’ve just been wandering into to the wrong places, like organic wine bars.But, no.

The 54-year-old wrestler-turned-thespian — wrespian? — consistently underwhelms where it matters most: at the box office.And yet he’s still one of Hollywood’s highest paid performers.

In 2024, Johnson actually held the No.1 slot, taking home a reported $88 million.It sure does pay to be the Scorpion King of Flops.The guy’s made so many bombs, he could be a weapons factory.Johnson’s latest project to get KO punched was last weekend’s “Moana,” Disney’s 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. Conservative estimates have the disaster losing $100-125 million for the studio.The video clip of Johnson’s character Maui’s song “You’re Welcome,” which has been widely shared online, will have you losing your lunch.“Moana” isn’t an isolated island for the Rock either.His last five years, save for a couple voice roles, have been littered with duds. The Christmas brick of coal “Red One” in 2024, the year Johnson was top paid, grossed a measly $186 million against a massive budget of more than $200 million. The godawful DC Comics movie “Black Adam,” in which Johnson barely moved his face in the title role, was another bomb — and one of the final nails in the DC Extended Universe coffin. Disney’s family friendly “Jungle Cruise” and the comedy “Free Gu...