Will Smith accepts the Oscar for Best Actor.
Reuters
Will Smith is one of the biggest movie stars of all time.
But his career hit a speed bump after he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Now he’s charting a comeback with the upcoming Apple movie “Emancipation.”
Sony
He’s ranked No. 15 in total US box office among actors in leading roles, according to the analysis site The Numbers.
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The slap followed a joke Rock made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and came before Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in “King Richard.”
AppleTV
First up in the comeback tour: Apple’s Oscar-hopeful film, “Emancipation,” which Smith both stars in and produced. The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, follows the true story of an enslaved man escaping and joining the Union Army.
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Smith came into the public eye as part of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in the 1980s and ’90s.
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He had hits like “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” which spent three weeks as number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998, and has won four Grammy awards.
NBC
In the series, which aired on NBC, Smith played a fictionalized version of himself. The show ran from 1990 to 1996.
Columbia Pictures
“Bad Boys” was a modest hit, grossing $141 million globally, but put Smith on people’s radar as a leading man.
Columbia Pictures
“Independence Day” grossed $817 million worldwide, while “Men in Black” earned $589 million globally.
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In a 2019 video, he said he didn’t want to be known as “the alien movie guy” after starring in “Independence Day.” Steven Spielberg, who was producing, called him and convinced him to take the part.
Warner Bros.
1999’s “Wild Wild West” was a disaster, grossing $222 million globally off of a hefty $170 million budget.
YouTube/Will Smith
He revealed in that aforementioned 2019 video that he turned down the movie after a disastrous pitch from the directors, the Wachowskis. He decided to make “Wild Wild West” instead.
Sony Pictures Releasing
He earned his first Oscar nomination for 2001’s “Ali,” in which he played the boxer Muhammad Ali. His second nomination came with the 2006 film “The Pursuit of Happyness.”
Sony
In the early 2000s, he starred in back-to-back sequels: 2002’s “Men in Black II” and 2003’s “Bad Boys II.”
Sony
He reportedly earned $100 million for the film. That number was based off the film’s total gross of $624 million globally.
Sony Pictures Releasing
Consumers started to gravitate more to brands like Marvel than to star-driven films.
Smith infamously turned down Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” in favor of 2013’s big-budget sci-fi movie “After Earth,” which bombed with a global box office of $243 million.
Warner Bros. Pictures
The movie made $747 million worldwide, but was torn apart by critics and basically rebooted with 2021’s “The Suicide Squad,” in which Smith didn’t appear.
Paramount
The film from director Ang Lee grossed $173 million worldwide and cost $138 million to make.
Disney
Disney’s “Aladdin” remake, in which Smith played the Genie, was his highest-grossing movie ever, with $1.05 billion worldwide. If the changing landscape meant Smith couldn’t sell a movie on his name alone, he could at least lend his star power to a known property.
Sony
It was a critical and box-office hit, with $426.5 million globally. That made it both the biggest movie in the series and the biggest of that year, as it was released just before the pandemic shut down theaters around the world.
Warner Bros.
Smith played Richard Williams, the father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, and also served as a producer.
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Following the incident, Smith resigned from the Oscars voting body and was banned from attending the ceremony for 10 years. He can still be nominated, however.
Apple
It’s too early to say, but Smith has been on a rehabilitation tour, including a first screening of the movie during a recent conference for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
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Apple is positioning it as its Oscar play this year after the company won best picture with last year’s “CODA.”