Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine,” starring Dwayne Johnson as MMA legend Mark Kerr, premiered at the Venice Film Festival to thunderous applause.
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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is taking to TV screens with the streaming release of his sports biopic “The Smashing Machine.”
In the film directed by Benny Safdie, which also stars Emily Blunt, Johnson turns (and is almost unrecognizable) into mixed martial artist Mark Kerr, an MMA star trying to reach the heights of his sport while dealing with opioid addiction and a turbulent romantic relationship. Kerr is a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, known as “The Smashing Machine”, and a documentary about him, also titled “The Smashing Machine”, aired on HBO in 2002.
Although the film flopped at the box office and debuted with just $6 million, Johnson said that playing Kerr “changed his life.”
“From the bottom of my grateful bones, thank you to everyone who watched ‘The Smashing Machine,'” Johnson wrote in an Instagram post on October 6. “In our storytelling world, you can’t control box office results — but I realized what you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go somewhere else. And I’ll always run for that opportunity.”
In a Q&A following the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2025, the A-lister said he had “waited for this opportunity for a long time to do something that challenged myself.”
“I strived for more and I wanted more,” Johnson said.
Find out where and when “The Smashing Machine” will stream here.
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Where is ‘The Smashing Machine’ streaming?
“The Smashing Machine” will be available to stream on HBO Max on Friday, January 23, Warner Bros. Discovery announced. New content typically releases at 3:01am ET / 12:01am PT on streaming platforms.
The film will also be available to watch on Saturday, January 24 at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on HBO TV channel.
‘The Smashing Machine’ on digital
“The Smashing Machine,” which opens in theaters on October 3, 2025, is currently available to purchase and rent on digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Watch ‘The Smashing Machine‘ on Amazon Prime. Apple TV
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‘The Smashing Machine’ Cast
The cast of “The Smashing Machine” includes:
- Dwayne Johnson as mark kerr
- emily blunt as Don Staples
- Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman
- bass rotan as bass
- oleksandr usyk as Igor Vovchanchin
Watch the trailer of ‘The Smashing Machine’
‘Smashing Machine’ scene: Dwayne Johnson trains as an MMA fighter
Mark Kerr (played by Dwayne Johnson) trains for a major global MMA tournament in Benny Safdie’s sports drama “The Smashing Machine”.
This story was updated to add more information.
Contributing: Anthony Robledo, Brian Truitt/USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow him on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
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