Credit: Columbia PicturesEven if you live under a rock, you know of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. When you think of Dwayne Johnson, there are probably a few images that come to mind. You may recall him as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, WWE Superstar, or you may know him from his acting work in Fast & Furious, Moana, Jungle Cruise, and more. Or, perhaps you just enjoy his tequila. If there is one thing we all have in common when it comes to our perception of Johnson, it is a success.
As noted by Vanity Fair, “For each of the last five years, he was, according to Forbes’s annual list, either the highest or second-highest-paid actor. (In that period, he is estimated to have earned a total of $430.4 million.)”. The only actor to have topped him most recently was Daniel Craig. Dwayne comes off as a lovable teddy bear, and although he may be very successful now, it was not always that way. Dwayne, in fact, grew up deep in poverty, with less than $10 to his name.
Now, Dwayne is not only one of the highest-paid actors, but he also has one of the largest followings on social media. In 2021, we shared that on Instagram, Dwayne goes as The Rock (@therock) and has a whopping 275 million followers. Until recently, Dwayne was the most high-paid celebrity when it came to influencer marketing but has now lost the title. As reported by Just Jared:
The “Instagram Rich List” features the biggest names in Hollywood, and last year’s list featured Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the number one spot, followed by Kylie Jenner at number 2. This year, Dwayne is at number 2 and Kylie has been bumped back to number 4!
According to the site, Johnson can charge $1,523,000 for a single Instagram post! You would think that there is no way someone else could charge more than that, but there is. Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has always been popular on social media, and now his 322 million+ following is getting him paid massive amounts. Ronaldo is able to charge thousands more than Johnson, with an average post cost of $1,604,000!
Since then, the rock has skyrocketed to 388 million followers on Instagram alone! He is now trailing Jenner by a small 10 million followers.
On YouTube, The Rock also has a large social presence with 6.8 million followers. On his channel he has a section called “What The Rock Is Cooking” which he describes as: “The Rock is cooking up some of his personal favorite recipes for you to try.” The thumbnails for all of these videos show Dwayne Johnson in a chef hat. From the description of the videos, many fans expect to see Dwayne Johnson in the video, however, even though his face is what he advertises, he is not the one cooking.
Below, you can see one of his uploads, which would make fans believe they are about to see the WWE star create a heart shaped dessert for Valentines Day. That is not necessarily what they did see, however. The video shows what appears to be a potential females hands cooking the dish, with a view of the food only.
If Dwayne though he could get away with tricking his millions of followers… he could not. The comments on his videos constantly call out Johnson saying, “I Like that this channel has a little bit of everything on it but I thought when it was created we were gonna see more of Dwayne,” and “Doesn’t count if The Rock isn’t ACTUALLY cooking.”
Below, you can see another video which advertises Dwayne, however he is not in the video.
It seems that the negative reception to all of these false-advertising videos caught up to Dwayne, as the channel is no longer creating this style of content. That being said, the videos are still readily available on his channel
Now, Dwayne Johnson is set to play Maui in the live-action remake of Moana and is working on the sequel Jungle Cruise 2 with Disney. He recently entered the world of superheroes with Warner Bros. DC Universe film where he played Black Adam in Black Adam (2022), a film which had flopped just before James Gunn (Marvel) joined the team.
If that weren’t enough, Dwayne Johnson was named a defendant in a $3 billion lawsuit alleging kidnapping that just moved forward in the judicial system. The Rock, alongside many other defendants, is being sued by Trenesha Biggers, also known as Rhaka Khan, during her former TNA and WWE days, alleging that she and her kids were kidnapped. Read more on that here.
With all of this surrounding Dwayne Johnson, a new report has now indicated that the actor will not be joining the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise after all.
What do you think of Dwayne Johnson’s antics on YouTube?