What was Will Smith’s first movie ever?

For better or worse, the 94th Oscars will always be the night everyone remembers when they think of Will Smith.

On one hand, the irrepressible A-lister who had ruled Hollywood for decades as one of its biggest, most bankable, popular and highest-paid stars secured the crowning glory of his career when he was named ‘Best Actor’ at . Academy Award for his performance as the title character in King Richard.

On the other hand, he had already torpedoed his reputation and shocked the world by walking onto the very stage he would return to less than an hour later, blasting Chris Rock right across the chops. The fallout was great, and while it’s either unfair or premature to say it marked the beginning of the end for Smith as a mainstream concern, few stars have ever lost so much luster in a single moment.

Deciding to play it safe, his first major theatrical release didn’t come until more than two years after the incident, and it was a sequel. Bad Boys: Ride or Die made money because it was the latest chapter in a hit franchise that has been building audience goodwill since the mid-1990s, but the real test of whether or not Smith still has it will come when he has to open a movies without having anything to rely on. on but himself.

Illustrating his meteoric rise from musician and sitcom favorite to all-star actor, Smith was the industry’s hottest leading man five years after his feature film debut. The successive releases of Bad Boys, Independence Dayand Men in black wasted little time in establishing him as a name guaranteed to turn butts in the seats, all the more impressive since he only had three big-screen credits under his belt before Michael Bay’s buddy cop release.

Smith’s first film saw him eighth in the cast in the 1992 drama Where the day takes youwhich followed the teenage runner’s misadventures on the streets of Los Angeles. He played Manny, a homeless man with no legs who befriends Dermot Mulroney’s manager, an inauspicious start to a career that would explode in the near future.

He left the spotlight to Ted Danson and Whoopi Goldberg Made in America the following year, which arrived in multiplexes seven months prior Six degrees of separationwhich gave the first inkling that Smith could also handle drama. After that, he would not appear in another film for a year and a half, only for Bad Boys to change everything.

Will Smith attends Vanity Fair Oscar Party 2022
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)

So what is Will Smith’s highest grossing movie?

To underline his star power, Smith has starred in 14 films that grossed more than $300 million at the global box office, and he was the top name on the cast in every one of them.

Seven of them sailed past half a billion dollars, but surprisingly, he has only been in one billion-dollar hit for one of his name value, appeal and recognition. Nor was he the reason for its success, with the ongoing obsession with Disney’s live-action remakes driving Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin past the ten-digit mark.

While someone of Smith’s caliber steps into Robin Williams’ terrifying shoes, as Genie certainly helped boost its grosses, the success of his highest-grossing film can’t be solely laid at his door.

…and why did Will Smith turn it down Django unchained?

Smith teaming up with Quentin Tarantino was a mouth-watering prospect, and while Jamie Foxx more than held up his end of the bargain in Django Unchainedit would have been a completely different film if it had been the former ‘Fresh Prince’ who had teamed up with Christoph Waltz to give life to Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L Jackson.

Unfortunately, Smith decided he didn’t want to be in the film because he wasn’t interested in telling a story about slavery. On paper it’s fair enough, except that ten years after Django Unchained was published, he starred in Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipationwhatich was, of course, a story about slavery.

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