How COVID-19 Affected Will Smith’s Blockbuster Career
Will Smith was once known as one of cinema’s biggest blockbuster stars. There was a time when any movie released with his name attached was guaranteed money. But over the years, the 55-year-old believes he hasn’t commanded the same box-office numbers as he once did. And Smith wondered if the recent pandemic played a hand in this.
Will Smith reveals how the pandemic affected his box-office career
Smith made it his mission to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. He more than achieved this goal by starring in multiple hit films that drew a fortune and broke records. But every once in a while, Smith has wondered if his status as a major box-office draw might’ve lessened over the years. He once spoke of the jealousy he had toward stars like Dwayne Johnson, who was in his position.
“I had a brief moment there where I got stuck on The Rock. He’s doing all these billion-dollar movies, and I got stuck in, and that animal woke up again. But I was like, you know what, I realized there’s never enough. You will never have enough of anything in the material world,” Smith once told The Breakfast Club.
With the success of Bad Boys 3, and the anticipation of its sequel Bad Boys for Life, Smith hoped to restore some of his status. Especially he feels the pandemic might’ve also taken away some of his drawing power as a box-office star. The pandemic completely disrupted the entertainment industry and forced many movies to be released through streaming. This change meant audiences were getting used to consuming media in a new way.
“So, COVID shut it down,” Smith told Entertainment Tonight. “And it was really the birth of the streamers. And the big, giant, daily global summer release; that’s kind of been gone for a minute.”
But Smith seemed confident that the old days were back.
Will Smith couldn’t stop obsessing over his box-office numbers
Smith described succeeding at the box office as a kind of addiction. Speaking with Complex, the Oscar winner described the lengths he went to preserve his box-office accomplishments. This included going online for several hours daily and constantly researching his box office reports.
“It is so addictive,” Smith said about box-office records. “I literally had to detox myself from looking at box office mojo every day, waiting for them to reset the numbers. And, ‘Wow, Bad Boys 3 had a 20% drop in Spain. What happened in Spain between Bad Boys 2 and Bad Boys 3? And what happened to Saudi? How did Saudi go up? How is Saudi equal to Germany?”
Soon, Smith realized he’d have to let go of his box-office obsession and move on with his life.
“It’s madness,” he continued. “So, I had to get out of there. But like I said, the poisoned honey, it’s delicious going down.”
One of Will Smith’s highest-grossing movies helped prepare him for COVID-19
Smith felt one of his movies helped give him early insight into one of the most significant events in human history. In 2007, audiences saw Smith star in the movie I Am Legend. The movie was about a virus that transformed its survivors into vampire-like creatures. Smith portrayed Robert Neville, a character who was immune to the disease that seemed to destroy all of humanity. Being mankind’s lone survivor, Smith’s Neville dedicated much of his time to searching for a cure for the virus.
Through his research for the role, Smith stumbled upon a lot of information regarding viruses and potential pandemics. So, when a real-life pandemic hit the world decades after Legend, the crisis affected Smith as much as anyone else. But he also felt he had a good grasp of the virus and knew how to respond.
“There was a basic foundational comprehension of viruses and viral pathogens that I developed and it really changed my life and how I looked at the world. There’s basic concepts that people do not understand,” Smith once said on an episode of Red Table Talk (via Cinemablend).
