Dwayne Johnson’s ‘Red One’ underperforms on opening weekend

Dwayne Johnson’s Christmas action comedy “Red One” opened to a subpar performance in the weekend box office.

Produced with a $250 million budget, the film grossed $32.1 million in its opening week, falling short of Sunday’s $34.1 million projection. Still, the movie took the No. 1 spot in the weekend box office, besting “Venom: The Last Dance” and “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”

Starring Johnson, Chris Evans, J.K. Simmons and Lucy Liu, “Red One” was met with controversy earlier this year after Johnson’s alleged lack of professionalism resulted in losses amounting to $50 million.

Despite the film’s box office underperformance, Amazon MGM’s head of theatrical distribution Kevin Wilson remains optimistic about its competition, which will include “Wicked” this week and “Moana 2” in the next. “We have to see how this plays into the holidays. We have big competition coming behind us… that’s no secret. But we offer something a little different than those movies,” Wilson told Variety.