Dwayne Johnson mocked for comparing panned Christmas movie to Oscar-winning Oppenheimer

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was inspired by an IMAX screening of ‘Oppenheimer’ to make sure his Christmas action movie had the same effect

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has revealed the unlikely inspiration for his new action Christmas movie Red One: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

The professional wrestler turned Hollywood star recently said that an IMAX screening of Nolan’s blockbuster hit encouraged him to utilize the same technology for his Santa Claus kidnapping flick. “I had an opportunity to go watch Oppenheimer and I watched it in the IMAX theater where Christopher Nolan watches and screens his movies,” Johnson said in a video interview.

The 52-year-old actor apparently asked to sit in the same spot where Nolan watches his own movie on IMAX screens. “I even asked to let me sit where Chris sits. They said, ‘Chris sits here,’” Johnson recalled.

As he watched Oppenheimer – a three-hour epic about physicist J Robert Oppenheimer and the psychological toll of creating the atomic bomb during World War II – Johnson thought: “Holy s***. Red One on this screen and with this technology could be game over.’”

Unsurprisingly, Johnson’s comments have since gone viral on social media. Not only did Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, win Best Picture at the Oscars earlier this year, but Nolan’s biopic has since been lauded as the “most important film of this century.”

Meanwhile, Red One – which hits theaters on November 15 – has received a meager 34 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter called Red One “so ugly, artificial and overlong that it should cure kids of any belief in magic,” while the Associated Press described the film as “an unwanted high-priced Christmas present.”

Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans star in ‘Red One’ (Karen Neal/Prime)

“Comparing OPPENHEIMER to RED ONE in any way is absolutely insane. Dwayne, please!” one user wrote on X/Twitter.

“Can’t even hate on this level of self-servicing delusion. All-time quote right here,” another person joked.

“Comparing your s****y action film with a generational masterpiece is f***ing hilarious,” a third commented, as someone else said: “The Rock is unintentionally the funniest person on the planet.”

The holiday movie features Oscar winner JK Simmons as a jacked-up, alpha male Santa Claus, while Johnson plays Callum Drift, the head of the North Pole security team Enforcement, Logistics and Fortification (ELF) responsible for protecting Saint Nick. But when Santa Claus (code name “Red One”) is kidnapped, Callum must pair up with hacker Jack O’Malley (played by Chris Evans) to rescue him.

Red One, an Amazon MGM Studios release, cost a reported $250m to make and only earned $26m in its launch at the international box office, according to Variety.