John Cena officially returned to WWE on September 1st, 2023. The real reason behind it didn’t come to light although speculation suggested that the SAG-AFTRA strikes played a part. Also known as the Hollywood Strike, the Writers Guild of America went on strike in May 2023. Later on, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined them. The strikes are a call for action for artists who demand fair pay, job security against artificial intelligence, and better health security.

As per the guidelines of SAG-AFTRA, no member of the guild can promote their movies during the strikes. Due to this, John Cena has hit another rockier bottom in his Hollywood career as his latest flick is now certified ‘rotten’. This gave rise to the question, is John Cena’s Hollywood career in danger now?

Is John Cena’s career about to hit rock bottom?

John Cena’s latest flick Freelance released in theaters on October 27, 2023. The movie follows the story of a retired special ops personnel named Mason Petis, played by John Cena. The retired soldier who doesn’t relish his desk job gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he has to escort a journalist played by Alison Brie to interview a dictator played by Juan Pablo Raba. However, all hell breaks loose as a military coup begins to overthrow the dictator, and it is now John Cena’s job to take both of them to safety. The action/comedy was announced in October 2021 with a budget of $40 Million.

Excitement for this movie peaked as the director of Taken and District 13 Pierre Morel directed it with the writing of the Writers Guild of America Awardee Jacob Lentz. However, things took an ugly turn for the movie. Rotten Tomatoes, a popular movie critic website has officially the movie as ‘rotten’ with a 0% score. Similarly, IGN gave a score of 4 out of 10 for the movie and called it “ An eyesore of horrendous digital effects, features uninspired action, and wastes the few big names in its cast.” Another movie critic website IMDb gave a rating of a slightly generous score of 5.5 out of 10 but the popularity of the movie on the website is staggeringly low. 

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A lot of this might be due to John Cena’s inability to promote the movie. But this is not the first time when his movie bombed at the box office.

John Cena’s unstable Hollywood career

The Leader of the Cenation started his career in mostly action flicks, which also suited his stature. But most of them were failures. These include The Marine and 12 Rounds. But the star slowly decided to make his move to the drama genre. His 2010 movie, Legendary, was considered one of the disasters from his early Hollywood career. Even though the movie had a good star cast, critics considered that the narrative and the story wasted the talent on the screen. The movie still received a generous 20% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 6.1 score on IMDb. Including his current flick, John Cena has starred in a total of 25 movies. 

The Hollywood star has been experimenting with a variety of different genres since his debut. Predominantly, he is being seen in action comedies after his breakout role as Peacemaker in James Gunn’s Suicide Squad. It also gave rise to a spin-off series where Cena is seen in the titular role of Peacemaker. While the series has been a hit with its second season on the way, Cena’s career has been quite unusual. Fans feel that he has established his prowess in the comedy genre with many of his comedy films being well received by both fans and critics. But several of his movies were flops too.

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With his blockbuster performance on the way, let’s hope his fight with Solo Sikoa at Crown Jewel is a hit. But do you think John Cena’s Hollywood career is about to hit rock bottom?