– By Tobi Caleb and Olaoluwa Olorunfemi
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – one of the most popular and appealing actors of recent times, needs no introduction. From his ancient cameo in “The Mummy Returns” to recent blockbusters like “Jumanji” and “Rampage”, his on-screen presence has been magnetic, drawing millions of movie-lovers to the cinemas (and to websites like moviescounter.com, if you know you know).
The 46-year old actor has been raking in millions of recent. He has his good looks, enormous social media presence, and a well-toned body (basically everything I don’t have) to thank for that.
The Rock’s foray into Hollywood started all the way back in 2001 when he was given a cameo in “The Mummy Returns”. After impressing the company executives, his character was given a spinoff, “The Scorpion King”, which went on to gross more than the double of the budget (it would have probably been triple if they had decided to count the money made from the cinema dubbed versions we all watched back then). He was named as the highest-grossing actor of 2013 by Forbes after playing major roles in reviving moribund movie franchises like “GI Joe” and “Fast and Furious”. His star power has grown so great that Universal studios allegedly forked out over $150 million for a movie that had him on board (No script, his name alone was enough for them). His acting earnings last year are the largest ever recorded in 20 years by Forbes and it nearly doubles the $65 million he earned in 2017 (How isn’t this guy a billionaire yet?).
After building an enormous fan base on social media (more than 108 million on Instagram, 13 million Twitter followers and 58 million on Facebook), The Rock has taken digital media advertisement to another level with a different seven-figure social media payment being made to him if he tweets or posts about any movie he stars in, starting from “Skyscraper”.
This is in addition to the $20 million upwards pay-cheque that he is usually paid upfront for his movies and back-end profits that he might have accrued. It is a win – win situation because it means movie studios will spend less on advertisements while the actors (Dwayne Johnson in this case) will also get to walk away with some cool cash (Dead presidents!!!!). Why spend tens of millions on adverts when you can pay $1 million to a single individual and reach over 150 million people?