The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2025, where it won the Silver Lion.[5]The Smashing Machine was released in the United States by A24 on October 3, 2025 and has grossed $14 million.
Plot
The film begins with an interview of Mark Kerr, who explains to the interviewer his success in Ultimate Fighting Championship, before he leaves for his next bout.
In 1999, Mark is at home with his girlfriend, Dawn, with whom he shares a complicated relationship. Mark scolds her lightly for making a bulking shake incorrectly, but then apologizes. He prepares for a fight while being coached by Mark Coleman, and stumbles in and out of drug use while meeting Japanese officials regarding his pay.
Mark sits in his locker room under the influence, when he and Dawn begin to argue. After losing his latest fight drastically, he quietly leaves to his locker room and begins sobbing. Back home, his relationship with Dawn further deteriorates and he overdoses the next morning. Coleman visits him and tells him that he needs to change, which Mark agrees with. He enters rehab, which strains his relationship with Dawn, eventually resulting in her leaving and Mark leaving to camp with Bas Rutten.
Mark does extremely well under the coaching of Bas, getting into peak shape, and winning his first fight. He eventually reconciles with Dawn, which to the dismay of Bas, results in Mark leaving camp. Mark and Dawn later have a falling out over her hedonistic habits, resulting in Mark breaking up with Dawn and asking her to leave. A distraught Dawn attempts suicide, resulting in her going into care. In Japan, a distracted Mark loses his next fight brutally, as he has flashbacks of Dawn and other moments of his life and career.
Coleman eventually wins the 2000 Pride Grand Prix, while Mark receives stitches. He sits in the shower, smiling and laughing before it cuts to the present day, showing the real Mark Kerr shopping at a grocery store. It is revealed that Mark and Dawn got married 11 days after his loss at the 2000 Grand Prix, he retired in 2009, and while mostly unknown today, is one of the biggest pioneers in the MMA world.
In its first weekend, the film earned $5.9 million.[25] Before its opening, initial projections were set at $17-20 million, which were then lowered to $15 million and finally $8 million as box office numbers were reported. This was attributed to limited demographic appeal, lackluster word-of-mouth, and a digital-centric advertisement campaign that failed to reach older adult audiences.[26][15] Johnson responded to the opening box office numbers with: "In our storytelling world, you can't control box office results — but what I realized you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go elsewhere. And I will always run to that opportunity... Truth is this film has changed my life."[27]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 72% of 268 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Dwayne Johnson goes the distance with his transformative turn as Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine, a gritty biopic that sidesteps cliché even at the expense of narrative satisfaction while still landing the dramatic body blows that count."[28]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[30]
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