Despite being semi-retired, John Cena is still one of the greatest modern wrestlers, remaining at the top of the WWE game for the longest time. With his more recent foray into Hollywood, it is no surprise that his net worth is very impressive.
Cena is now as big a star in the world of entertainment as he is in wrestling, but it is not a journey that has been without its setbacks. The Massachusetts-born star's first-ever movie role was as an uncredited extra in the 2000 film Ready to Rumble, where he barely made any money.
The struggle continued into his first starring role six years later, in John Bonito's The Marine. His part in the film - a box-office flop - was originally written for fellow WWE star 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, who refused the role.
He has since come a long way from those days, with his most recent A-list role as Christopher Smith/Peacemaker in the DC Extended Universe. He first played the character in the film The Suicide Squad, but he now has his own, eponymous spin-off show on HBO. In that time, his net worth has skyrocketed significantly.
How John Cena’s Acting Career Has Taken Off
Cena's success in Hollywood is directly linked to his WWE roots. As well as The Marine, his second film - 12 Rounds (2009) - was also financed by WWE Studios. Once he became established, he began to try his hand in comedy films, featuring in projects like Sisters, Trainwreck, and Daddy's Home 1 & 2.
Other formative projects of Cena's career include The Wall (2017), a war drama by Doug Liman, and the animated films Ferdinand and Surf's Up 2: WaveMania, which he lent his voice to. Since then, the actor has starred in movies like Playing with Fire and the Transformer's prequel titled Bumblebee.
He has also joined the Fast & Furious franchise, where he plays the character called Jakob Toretto. His first film in the role was F9: The Fast Saga, the tenth picture in the Fast & Furious series. He is scheduled to reprise the part in two other upcoming movies in the franchise, circa 2023 and 2024, respectively.
In 2019, The Suicide Squad director James Gunn started to put out feelers towards Cena for the role of Peacemaker. The timing was perfect for the superstar, who had long wanted to get a shot at a role in the DCEU. At the time, Cena was estimated to be worth around $44 million.
HBO Max Greenlit 'Peacemaker' After Being Impressed By John Cena's Performance In 'The Suicide Squad'
The Suicide Squad was in fact a sequel of sorts to the original Suicide Squad, the 2016 film which was written and directed by David Ayer (Training Day, The Fast and the Furious). However, instead of being a continuation of the same story, it was
considered more of a reboot that would direct the story in a fresh direction.
In a stellar cast of the rich and famous, Cena joined Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis who were in the original film, as well as newcomers Idris Elba and Sylvester Stallone (who did voice only).
The picture struggled to bear much fruit at the box office, as it fell to a loss of about $17 million, from a production budget of $185 million. There were mitigating circumstances, though, these being the effects of the COVID lockdown globally and the movie's availability on HBO Max.
Still, the streaming service was pleased enough with Gunn's work - and Cena's performance - that they agreed to greenlight a spin-off project revolving around the actor's character.
John Cena Has Been Defined As 'Peacemaker's' Greatest Attribute
According to an online synopsis of Peacemaker, the story is 'set five months after the events of The Suicide Squad, [and] follows Christopher Smith/Peacemaker as he is enlisted by an ARGUS black ops squad led by one Clemson Murn for "Project Butterfly," a mission to take out parasitic butterfly-like creatures.'
The series has generally received positive initial reviews. A review on the Guardian specifically singles Cena out for praise, describing him as 'the show's strongest attribute, [with] his veiny musculature lending a much-needed weight to face-offs that falter when ramping up the plastic-looking CGI.'
It is indeed high praise for a man who is still relatively new to the DCEU. It is also testament to just how far he has come as an actor, especially considering the load of work he has had to juggle in recent years.
Since 2020, Cena has also featured in movies like Dolittle alongside Robert Downey Jr., and the comedy, Vacation Friends. All this work has contributed to push his net worth all the way up to around the $60 million mark, a long way from where he stood when he first landed the Peacemaker role.
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