How Will Smith rebooted $470 million empire with family sex secrets and Netflix’s ‘big risk’

With Will Smith’s Hollywood future under a cloud following the infamous Oscars slap, he may need to pull out another trick to bounce back.

Will Smith is recovering from a public lashing after he slapped the comedian Chris Rock over a gag about his wife’s alopecia mere minutes before scooping his very first Oscar.

The Best Actor win should have been a crowning moment for the King Richard star, 53, cementing his legacy of hits including The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, Men in Black and the Bad Boys franchise.

But now his reputation as a Hollywood ace – after portraying tennis champs Venus and Serena Williams’ father – could be hanging in the balance, reports The Sun.

Six years ago, Will’s career was also in the quagmire after three films – After Earth, Concussion and Focus – were all critically panned.

Back then, producers feared Will had lost his Midas touch and could be on the way out, but he bounced back thanks to a “creative rebirth”.

A series of surprising moves saw him branch out into tech investment, launching a water brand, becoming a social media superstar and most notably telling us a lot about his sex life in shockingly candid detail.

The slap has been dubbed the “ugliest” moment in Oscars history. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

Open marriage reveal

Since the launch of Red Table Talk in 2018, Will, Jada Pinkett-Smith and even daughter Willow have laid their dirty laundry bare for all the world to see.

The couple, who have been married for around 25 years, finally revealed they are in an open marriage and had slept with other people, two years ago.

The admission followed years of speculation and their unusual union was revealed to be the result of Jada “never believing in a conventional marriage”.

Famously in the past, she appeared to green light her husband being able to cheat on her amid claims of an affair with his co-star from the 2015 film Focus, Margot Robbie – which she thoroughly denied.

“I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be OK,’” Jada told HuffPost in 2013.

Years later, she laughed off the “craziest rumour” that they were swingers and remarked: “I’m like, ‘Yo, I wish, I wish!’”

When the Smiths revealed details about their “unconventional union”, she took to Facebook to defend it and revealed they “both can do whatever we want”.

Jada rejected the description of them being in an “open relationship” and instead referred to it as a “grown one” because they “TRUST each other”.

Flings and sexuality confessions

The most notable episode was when the couple discussed Jada’s fling with the rapper August Alsina, which was viewed by more than 25 million people in 2020.

Previously, rumours were rife over an affair when the toyboy musician, who is 21 years her junior, said Will “gave me his blessing” – a claim the couple denied.

During the episode, which aired on Facebook Watch, Jada described her relationship with August as an “entanglement” after a breakdown in their marriage.

Later it would be revealed that Will had slept with other people too and previously fantasised about having a harem of “20 women” that he “loved and took care of”.

He told GQ: “It doesn’t make me a bad person that I’m married and I think Halle [Berry] is beautiful.”

In another Red Table Talk, Willow came out as bisexual to her mother and grandmother as well as refusing to rule out that she may have an open relationship in the future too.

She said: “I love men and women equally and so I would definitely want one man, one woman. I feel like I could be polyfidelitous with those two people.”

Jada and Will are known for sharing plenty of intimate details about their marriage. Picture: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards

Dwayne Johnson inspiration

When Will’s movie career seemed to be heading down the drain back in 2016, he noticed another unlikely star rising through the ranks and bagging some of the biggest roles in Hollywood.

It was Dwayne Johnson, the former wrestler known as The Rock, who went from battling it out in the ring into a lucrative film career that led him to become the highest paid actor in 2020 – after raking in $A116 million.

Will reportedly noticed the 49-year-old was able to generate hype and demand more money by connecting with fans through his social media.

The Fresh Prince star invested in Westbrook Inc, a company that would help to expand his and the family’s brand and expanse into new media, technology and even merchandising.

“It has definitely been a creative rebirth for Will,” one executive from the company told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019.

They added: “It’s the closest thing to performing on stage because of the immediate feedback.”

It led him to create a series of comedic videos including one where Will pretended to have his tooth knocked out by Jason Derulo.

As well as promoting himself, he also started to push the films he was working on social media too.

One telling account came during a promotional tour in Amman, Jordan, for the film Aladdin, in which he played The Genie.

Disney film production chief Sean Bailey recalled spotting a drone flying over the top of them and “didn’t know what it was” only to later realise “it was some of Will’s social”.

While it’s hard to predict how much Will’s promotion of Aladdin translated into sales, many were shocked to discover the film raked in $A1.4 billion despite not being well-received by critics.

Mena Massoud and Will Smith in Aladdin.

For his work, the actor received around $A16.6 million and between 12 and 20 per cent share of the takings from the Disney remake worldwide, according to a source.

Sean added: “There was some cynicism and negativity around the movie, and this was not one where we, going into it, felt success was assured.”

Will now has 111 million followers on Facebook, 6.18 million on Instagram and 9.85 million subscribers on YouTube.

This investment means that Will could charge millions for an online endorsement, according to Andy Barr, of CEO 10 Yetis Digital.

He told The Sun: “If someone wants Will to give them some social shares on a typical commercial basis they would not get much change out of $2 million (A$2.6 million) per individual social interaction.”

Will boasts nearly six times more YouTube views than the most followed person on Instagram, Manchester Utd star Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 419 million followers.

Despite the actor signing up for the video streaming channel five years ago, unlike the footballer who joined in 2005, his clips have been watched 712 million times, compared to Ronaldo’s 127 million.

Human-orc flick was ‘big risk’

In 2017, Will’s career was on the line after he took the lead in Netflix film Bright – a comedy about humans, orcs and other fantasy creatures.

It was the first time the streaming giant bagged a Hollywood star for one of their original films – and they paid him $36 million, which was roughly double his Warner Bros salary.

Joel Edgerton and Will Smith in a scene from the movie Bright. Picture: Netflix.

The film’s budget was a then-record $A133 million and the sci-fi flick’s success paved the way for films typically only seen at the cinema to be released straight to streaming, including Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in 2019.

In a letter to shareholders, Netflix reported the film “drove a notable lift” in subscribers and was one of their “most viewed original titles ever”.

The success of the film and demand for Will’s acting talent led him to land a reported $A26.5 million for taking the lead in King Richard, which he just won an Oscar for.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith at the Oscars, pre-slap. Picture: P. Lehman/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Water brand, licencing and Fresh Prince reboot

Will also teamed-up with his family to release JustWater – a sustainable sourced and packaged effort concept devised by his protégé Jaden.

That’s not all, he also purchased the German licencing rights company, Telepool, in 2018 through a private investment vehicle.

It’s believed it will help him to monetise his back catalogue of songs, which include two number one hits, and expand further into Europe.

Through Westbrook, the actor also spearheaded a remake of his breakthrough series The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air – releasing Bel-Air to mixed reviews last month.

This comes alongside the substantial royalties Will still earns from appearing in the original ’90s series.

The NBC show was licenced to nearly 200 countries and he’ll hope to see similar success with this new release.

‘Chris Rock slap won’t hit his wallet’

While Will is in deep water after assaulting Chris Rock on stage last weekend, he has since apologised and branded “violence in all forms … poisonous and destructive”.

It may be hard for some fans to forget after it was reported that a YouTube video of the slap broke records after accruing 50 million views in a day.

Despite the outburst, which could cost him his Oscar if the Academy Awards committee calls for it, experts claim it’s unlikely to financially impact him.

Andy Barr told The Sun: “I don’t think it will affect his earnings at all in the medium to long term. He has followed the crisis communications playbook 101 and is carefully navigating through the issue.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission