Dwayne Johnson Has a Simple Rule for Criticism: 'If You Love It, Great. If You Don't, No Problem'

Hollywood lives and dies by opening weekend. Reviews are dissected. Box office numbers become headlines. Social media decides winners and losers before the popcorn gets cold.

Dwayne Johnson isn't buying into any of it. As Disney's live-action Moana continues to divide critics and fall short of box office expectations, Johnson has offered a surprisingly calm response: "If you love it, great. If you don't, no problem."

For one of Hollywood's biggest stars, it wasn't a defence of the film as much as a reminder that criticism is temporary, while stories can last much longer.

Johnson admitted the early reviews had briefly raised expectations. "The first two reviews came out... they were amazing," he recalled. "Then it went another way, as sometimes happens." For many actors, that shift would have been difficult to ignore. Instead, Johnson says the real conversations happened not in boardrooms or on social media, but around the kitchen island at home after his children had gone to bed.

He and his wife kept reminding themselves to look beyond opening weekend. "The challenge was to remember what's beyond this opening weekend," he said. "Let's remember what's happening right now and the noise that's happening right now." That perspective has become increasingly rare in an entertainment industry obsessed with instant verdicts.

The numbers certainly haven't been kind. The live-action Moana currently holds a 31% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and 42 on Metacritic. Its theatrical performance has also fallen below Disney's expectations, with the company acknowledging the film underperformed commercially.

Yet Johnson refuses to judge the film purely through reviews or revenue. "If you love it, great," he said. "If you don't, no problem."

It's an attitude that mirrors the career he's built. From wrestling icon to Hollywood's highest-paid actor, Johnson has often ignored the noise around him, choosing consistency over controversy. His latest comments suggest he views criticism as an inevitable part of creating anything that millions of people will consume. Not every film becomes a classic. Not every review is glowing. Not every audience agrees.

And perhaps that's exactly the point. Sometimes the healthiest response to criticism isn't fighting it. It's simply moving on to the next story.

(With inputs from ANI)