Dwayne Johnson confesses his biggest failure in a cursed science fiction film Dwayne Johnson confesses his biggest failure in a cursed science fiction film By Quentin Couprie 20 November 2025 He rarely admits defeat, yet Dwayne Johnson says one "cursed" sci-fi project did just that. Twenty years on, he’s finally owning his biggest faceplant. What went wrong for the man who would soon rescue franchises? Shutterstock Two decades ago, Dwayne Johnson bet on a Mars-set shootout hauled from consoles to the big screen, and the gamble fizzled. Backed by Stan Winston Studio creatures and a commando rampage through Olduvai, “Doom” scraped $58 million against a $60 million budget and won little love from audiences. Johnson now jokes about the video game adaptation curse, a stumble that nudged him toward comedies before the pivot that made him an action fixture with Fast and Furious 5. A bold step into science fiction 20 years ago, Doom hit the big screen, riding on the coattails of a video game phenomenon from the 1990s. Set on the eerie Mars-based station Olduvai, the film followed a commando team battling mutated monsters. Leading the charge was a rising star in Hollywood, Dwayne Johnson, fresh off a successful transition from the wrestling ring to the silver screen. Expectations were high for this ambitious adaptation. Watch on Netflix Today: A Suspenseful Mini-Series Under 4 Hours Perfect for a Quick Weekend Big ambitions on set Back in 2005, everything about Doom seemed set for success. Andrzej Bartkowiak directed, and Stan Winston Studio (lauded for their work on Terminator and Aliens) lent their expertise to the film’s creature effects. The cast was stacked too, with Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban, and Rosamund Pike spearheading the storytelling. For Johnson, whose earlier roles in The Scorpion King and The Rundown had brought him acclaim, Doom promised to solidify his place among Hollywood’s elite action stars. A box office disappointment And yet, the stars didn’t align. Despite the production efforts, Doom stumbled with both critics and viewers. With a 1.6/5 audience score on AlloCiné and a worldwide gross of only $58 million against a $60 million budget, it was a commercial and critical flop. Audiences were unimpressed, and video game adaptations, already seen as a risky venture, gained another mark against them. From failure to humorous reflection Dwayne Johnson has looked back at Doom with a mixture of ownership and humor. Describing the project as “cursed”, he acknowledges the unique challenges of turning video game adaptations into movies, a challenge that few have managed to overcome fully. Still, the failure didn’t define his career. If anything, it gave him the room to pivot and explore different genres for a time. Source: https://3dvf.com/en/dwayne-johnson-confesses-his-biggest-failure-in-a-cursed-science-fiction-film/