Rock Bottom! Dwayne Johnson Suffers Embarrassing Box Office Flop With 'The Smashing Machine'... After Actor's Dramatic Transformation for Role Sparked Health Concerns

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has been put in a hard place, after his new movie flopped at the box office, RadarOnline.com can report, becoming the lowest grossing opening of his career.

The Smashing Machine, for which the wrestler-turned-actor underwent a complete body transformation, could only punch up a meager $5.9million domestically, surplanting his 2010 thriller Faster, which took in $8.5 million, not adjusted for inflation.

Johnson packed on 30 pounds of muscle to play two-time UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr for his life story. The R-rated drama was a passion project for the 53-year-old, who picked up his pride and said on Instagram it was his "honor to transform in this role."

"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," he wrote. "And I will always run to that opportunity."

But fans seemed to be the ones running – away from the movie theater. They disected exactly what went wrong with the pic in a Reddit chat room.

"I feel like if this was a biopic about someone more people were familiar with, than it probably would’ve done a little bit better," one person commented. "But then again sports biopics in general are (a) tougher sell."

Indeed, Johnson's performance was well-received, and many say the film has instanly thrown him into the race for a Best Actor Oscar.

The one-time Tooth Fairy star received a 15-minute long standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival last month. Yet insiders tell RadarOnline.com "deep-rooted Oscar prejudice" against blockbuster action stars will prevent him from ever taking home an Academy Award.

"Dwayne will never get a best actor Oscar," said one source close to the Academy. "Hollywood has a long memory, and many voters still see him as a WWE entertainer who makes popcorn movies. No matter how strong his work is, the snobbery lingers."

Johnson's performance is being widely compared to Mickey Rourke's turn in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler (2008). Both films explore fighters battling physical decline and personal demons, but while Rourke earned an Oscar nomination, analysts doubt Johnson will even achieve a nod.

However, Johnson doesn't seem outwardly discouraged, and is already challenging himself again with his next part.

This time, instead of bulking up to play an ultimate fighter, "The Rock" is shedding the pounds to play an eccentric 70-year-old named "Chicken Man" in the big screen adaptation of the Daniel Pinkwater young adult novel Lizard Music.

When he appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival, Johnson had already lost much of the 30 pounds of muscle he put on to play Kerr, and said there was more loss to come.

"I still have a long way to go," he told a crowd during a special career retrospective discussion. "I'm so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine."

The artsy new films are part of an overall career renaissance for the former WWE champion, who has said he is ready to act outside the box.

After a fast and furious action career, Johnson noted that the entertainment industry can often "pigeon-hole" actors into a specific "lane," which frustrated him. So he promised himself his next roles would provide more of a challenge to what people expect of him.

"This transformation was something I was really hungry to do," Johnson said without the slightest hint of irony. "I had been very fortunate to have the career that I've had over the years and to make the films that I've made, but there was just a voice inside of me, a little voice that said, 'Well, what if I could do more – I want to do more, and what does that look like?'"