Between its swanky cars and high-flying tricks, the Fast & Furious franchise has always preached the importance of family. Yet, the big stars at the center of them are no stranger to engaging in public fueds with one another. Dwayne Johnson and Tyrese Gibson have a long history of being in an alleged beef with one another. However, it’s been primarily Tyrese targeting The Rock, who often keeps face in response.
Now check out Dwayne Johnson’s recent tweet about Hobbs & Shaw’s box office success:
The big actor starts off his status by thanking the fans for making the Fast & Furious spinoff the No. 1 movie for the second weekend in a row and racking up $333 million globally. Then out of left field, he says the best way to close the mouth of a clown is “to flex with success and a smile.” Ok, he used an emoji technically, but he’s clearly calling someone a clown!
Could that clown be Tyrese Gibson? His Fast & Furious co-star reignited the beef last week by poking fun at Hobbs & Shaw’s box office performance since it earned the lowest Fast & Furious box office opening since 2006’s Tokyo Drift. Gibson said this:
I have to show my respects for one thing…. He tried........ Folks called me a hater…. And attacked me for speaking out..... Breaking up the family clearly doesn’t have the value that one would assume it does.
The Baby Boy actor has previously spoken out about taking issue with the franchise getting a spinoff, saying that Dwayne Johnson was making Fast & Furious all about himself. He was feeling good about his past remarks last week when he noticed the numbers for Hobbs & Shaw weren’t the impressive – for the franchise anyway.
Hobbs & Shaw has still topped the domestic box office for two weeks in a row, beating out tons of new releases and is already in the top 15 highest-grossing movies of 2019. It recieved middle-of-the-road reviews from critics, managing a 66% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and an 89% from audiences.
So Hobbs & Shaw isn’t a failure by any stretch of the imagination. Is it at the level of 2017’s Fate of the Furious, which made $1.236 billion worldwide after a $98 million opening weekend? No, but that doesn’t mean Tyrese Gibson has a right to boast about Hobbs & Shaw’s lack of value. It’s like if one of the Avengers spoke ill of one of the solo flicks not making as much as the massive team-up flicks.
Dwayne Johnson is fueling some of these old flames with his “clown” comments on Twitter. His main point seems to be to let the numbers speak for themselves, but he’s definitely throwing some shade out. Maybe it's time to sit back and watch their feud continue to unfold?
