A movie star has died. At least that's what trends at the cinema box office tell us.
If once movie stars dictated the pace, in the last decade we could see how the power of brands came from Hollywood studios instead as the main trump card for collecting money.
Out of a total of 50 most watched films in the last decade, practically every one of them was either part of an already existing series or was a remake.
This is the complete opposite of what happened in the 90s when many of the top 10 films were based on original ideas and were intended as the ideal vehicle for stars like Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks and Will Smith.
Long gone are the days when it was enough to put a movie star on a poster for a guaranteed profit.
However, there is at least one person bucking this trend - the larger-than-life Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
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He started his career as a frame wrestler World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) association, to then switch to film at the beginning of this century.
Since his film debut The Scorpion King in 2002, for which he was paid $5,5 million, a record for a first-time actor, Johnson became a bona fide star whose films have grossed more than $10 billion to date.
Charles Gant, an expert in the analysis of the results of the cinema box office and editor of the magazine Screen International, says that nowadays "only a small number of movie stars can be considered profitable and Dwayne Johnson is at the very top of that short list".
Gant believes that his "charisma, versatility, appearance that resembles a common man and the believability he shows in action scenes give a unique combination that is a recipe for such success".
The latest blockbuster to confirm this golden streak of Johnson's is a Disney comedy Adventure in the jungle, which premiered around the world a few weeks ago.
It's another light-hearted family adventure that's stylistically similar to Johnson's earlier hits such as Jumanji movies or Race to the Witch's Mountain.
Inspired by one of Disneyland's theme rides, this throwback romp follows Frank Wolfe (Johnson), a stubborn but proud steamboat captain who agrees to escort a British scientist (Emily Blunt) down the Amazon in search of the mythical Tree of Life in the early 20th century.
But if Johnson stopped one trend, then it's safe to say that he started a new one, because now he's not the only former wrestling star stirring up Hollywood.
Moreover, the three most recognizable actors in Hollywood at the moment have made money in previous years by knocking down opponents with killer grabs and brutal throws.
Johnson's former rival in the ring and new face from the poster of the wrestling association, John Cena, star in two of the biggest hits of the summer.
He plays Vin Diesel's infamous younger brother in the latest film in the series Hell's streets (Fast & Furious 9), and since a few weeks ago we can see him in the role of the bloodthirsty antihero Peacemaker (Peacemaker) in the movie Detachment of written offs, based on the comic of the same name.
Another wrestler-turned-movie star - Dave Bautista, a chatty mountain of tattooed muscles - made sure the picture was complete.
He was last seen in Netflix's bombastic zombie extravaganza Army of the Dead, and she is one of the leading stars in the eagerly awaited film adaptation of the novel Dina, by Frank Herbert.
So why have wrestlers become the most sought-after currency in the world of blockbusters in the 21st century?
Brian Alvarez, editor of the weekly Figure Four newsletter and prominent American wrestling journalist, says there's no question that Cena and Johnson certainly had the makings of a Hollywood ideal: "Absolutely, from day one, they looked like guys who were going to be giant stars".
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The roots of Johnson's success
In his former wrestling life, Johnson, better known as The Rock, followed in the footsteps of his father, Rocky Johnson, who, along with his ring partner Tony Atlas, became the first black champion in WWE history when the two won the tag team championship in 1983. .
His son made his WWE debut in 1996 and retired from wrestling in 2004, when his film career was launched, although he occasionally returned to the sport.
His last notable performance was precisely against Sina na WrestleMania 29 spectacle in 2019.
Then he officially announced his retirement from the ring.
Right there, in the square ring, as a member of the menagerie represented by professional American wrestling, dressed only in black Speedo swimming trunks decorated with a bull on the butt, he began his journey towards the position of a global superstar.
Unlike his wrestling beginnings when he struggled to win over fans, he was the first favorite with movie fans from the start, and eventually became the most popular star the sport of wrestling has ever had.
He, together with Mike Foley, was a participant in the most watched wrestling segment of all time, and he twice broke all records in viewership on the cable pay-and-watch platform.
With a combination of catchphrases that he persistently used in the ring ("Come on, rush it," "Did you smell what Stena cooked you," "Shut up and learn your part"), he was successful where others were not.
His irresistible charm, playful eyebrow and astonishing athleticism for a man of his size made him the first star of wrestling.
He reached Zenit in 2001 when he was only 29 years old WrestleMania17 became the most-watched program on the pay-per-view cable platform ever, just a few weeks before filming began on The Scorpion King, in which he found himself in the lead role for the first time.
Although Johnson quickly became the biggest star to replace the wrestling ring with the even brighter lights of Hollywood, he was not the first.
Hulk Hogan, who was the most popular wrestler in the 80s, had a role in the film Rocky 3 (1982) as wrestler Thunderlips, before returning to the big screen at the end of that decade when his sports career began to stagnate following a steroid scandal.
His film journey was not exactly memorable: unable to escape the image he already had as a true American model athlete, he remained stuck in roles that reflected his wrestling persona - the man who tells you to pray regularly, eat vitamins and to stand up to bullies.
His first leading role in an action thriller No Holds Barred from 1989 was his only serious attempt to transfer his own image acquired in the ring to a film, but it completely failed.
The film was so bad that the head of the WWE wrestling association Vince McMahon, who was also the financier of the film, jokingly stated that Hogan owed him money due to its failure at the box office.
Then he tried his hand at family comedies with two more worthless films: a sci-fi comedy Suburban Commando from 1991, he played an intergalactic warrior who lands on Earth and meets a typical suburban American family, while in the comedy Mr. Nanny from 1993, which is otherwise nothing more than a pale imitation of Schwarzenegger's Kindergarten cop, plays a wrestler who becomes a bodyguard tasked with protecting the children of a wealthy industrial magnate.
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Other wrestlers who have flirted with Hollywood in the past include Jesse Ventura (Predator, Breaker) and Steve Austin (The Mercenaries, Prison circuitg), while fans of fairy tales The princess bride from 1987, they also remember the wrestler Gina Andreu who made a good impression in the role of Fezicus, a timid and poetic giant who is in the service of the tiny Sicilian mobster Vicini.
Regardless of the fact that he shone in this role, the stars were not in his favor.
By the time he appeared in this Rob Reiner classic, Andre was already in great pain, especially in his knees and back.
It was the result of years spent in the ring.
He died prematurely, at the age of 46, from a heart attack in 1993.
What sets today's trio of wrestlers-turned-Hollywood stars apart from their predecessors is that they are able to offer movie audiences something more than physical prowess.
Although reminiscent of muscular monstrosities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, they are able to put aside their physical appearance and heroic wrestling skills and take on roles not only as conventional tough guys, but also in comedy roles where they show no fear. ridiculing one's own shortcomings.
Also, they are able to use their own sexual attractiveness.
Johnson's public persona can be described as Santa Claus with muscles, Sina is Hollywood's goofiest hunk, while Bautista's pantomime talent is responsible for him being loved outside of the world of wrestling fans.
The three of them stand out in modern mainstream Hollywood, whose stars normally aspire to the model of super muscular, asexual and more than serious men.
Christina Newland, film critic and editor of the collection of essays entitled Found in Movies: Sex Writers, longing and film, says, “I think there's a kind of inextricable combination of camp in their careers that we recognize in WWE shows and a kind of comic muscular masculinity that's at the same time a bit silly, but also endlessly and genuinely charming.
"That kind of self-loathing and the ability to portray a macho image with a sense of humor is something so precious. It's a picture of macho men in this modern age."
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The wrestling ring as a place for performance
If we leave masculinity aside, then we can also say that the wrestling ring is the perfect training room for Hollywood triumph: it is a space where you can create performances that delight the audience in a fantastic and absurd milieu.
"Basically, American professional wrestling is all about acting," says Alvarez.
"That's especially true in WWE, where wrestlers are given a script that they have to memorize and recite to the cameras.
"They play roles that very often do not represent themselves, but act according to imagined scenarios".
Alvarez says Johnson used wrestling as a place to test all aspects of communicating with viewers.
"He possessed great charisma and learned early on how to animate live audiences at wrestling matches.
"He learned how to use a smile, mannerisms, an eyebrow, and along the way he had feedback from his audience every night.
"That's how he learned what works with fans and what doesn't."
Success in professional wrestling depends on the instinct to fire up the audience, and its reaction provides crucial information to the wrestling actors: they thus become fully aware of their own image and how they can further build it.
Bautista thus turned his too-serious wrestling persona upside down, transforming himself into a kind of fun person who defies expectations.
In the films of To the Guardians of the Galaxy, he transforms the character of Marvel's green-skinned Drax the Destroyer into something much more than a generic badass who says one-liners.
In comedies Stubber (2019) and My spy (2020) he turned archetypal hero roles by playing them somewhat ignorantly - lots of talk but no effect, something like the cartoon singer Sophronius, but weighing 120 kilos.
On the other hand, Sina as a wrestler has always been a wholesome, blameless hero - sort of like Captain America in denim shorts - but his rise to Hollywood once again marks a deliberate twisting of the script.
His early WWE-produced action films aside, his first serious Hollywood role is a comedy Trainwreck of 2015..
He plays Amy Schumer's chiseled but sexually inept boyfriend, and he especially shines in one of the funniest and most unusual scenes of recent years as a man who can only orgasm by imagining himself in the gym.
In the movie Blockers from 2018, he again plays a douchebag - a protective father who tries to prevent his daughter from losing her virginity during the prom celebration.
These films proved that he is both a good comedian and a great athlete: there are not many actors who would agree to expose themselves in such a somewhat humiliating way, especially when we know that Sina has built his entire career so far on the model of a super man.
Alvarez agrees that Sina is "a very good comedian" — it's no secret that he's known among wrestling fans as someone with a twisted sense of humor, and movies have finally given him a chance to play the fool.
In this summer's hit movie, Detachment of written off, Sina, by his own admission, plays "some kind of badass Captain America", which is an obvious variation on his wrestling character, but also an association with the character he plays in the movie F9 (Fast and Furious) and who tries to devastate the planet.
As for Johnson, he's done his best when he's relied on his personality - he's tried to be a standard action hero with films like Welcome to the jungle (The Rundown, 2003) and Walking Tall (2004), but it never quite worked, probably because Hollywood has no shortage of such types.
What has really made him a very profitable superstar is the fact that he is able to look in the mirror and genuinely laugh at himself.
In addition to family comedies and absurd blockbusters (Hobbs and Shaw, Rampage, skyscraper), he doesn't hesitate to parody himself as a movie star in Richard Kelly's bizarre apocalyptic madness Southland tales (2006), or playing a bodybuilder-turned-kidnapper in Michael Bay's understated satire of fitness and capitalism, the film Pain & Gain of 2013..
He also shows the signs of someone who isn't just interested in collecting fees, but someone who breaks the rules, defies expectations and deliberately mocks masculinity on the biggest stage possible.
The question is whether, based on the success of this trio, a permanent channel of talent transfer from wrestling to Hollywood can be established?
Certainly there are signs that others may follow their path.
Johnson's cousin Lita Joseph Anoai, better known by his WWE name Roman Reigns, has already started appearing in minor roles in Hobbs & Shaw spinoff and Netflix movie The Wrong Missy, just like Seth Rollins who seems like a born villain more than anyone else.
There are other wrestlers whose successes in the ring hint at a successful transition, from Randy Orton who already has the sex appeal of actors to Dolph Ziggler, a guy with the perfect name who also happens to be a stand-up comedian.
Alvarez agrees that there is still potential for future crossover stars: "Everyone who is in wrestling has the potential for success and if they become big enough stars in this professional sport, then they already have a fan base for an acting career."
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