Shaking the box office

Disaster blockbuster San Andreas features a series of earthquakes that rip cities apart in California. Photo provided to China Daily

He said that during his morning training in a Beijing gym, Johnson found all the Chinese fans simply quietly watched and waited until he finished exercising.

"It's respectful. Only when I finished, it's like chaos," says the superstar, smiling.

The 43-year-old actor achieved his first Guinness World record in 2002, when he became the highest-paid actor for a lead debut in The Scorpion King. He received $5.5 million for the action film.

Another highlight in San Andreas is Italian-American actress Gugino. Best-known for her role as Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids movies, Gugino reveals that her biggest challenge was "acting with a green screen", as nearly 65 percent of the content, amounting to 1,400 special-effect scenes, is based on computer-graphics technology.

"It requires a lot of imagination, even though we were given help by previews so we were able to see how big it might be."

Trained to pilot a military speedboat to crash into a high-rise and rescue her family, Gugino says the huge amount of stunts won her some kudos on the set.

However, despite The Rock's global star power, Warner Brothers' big-budget new title is getting mixed reviews from critics.

Set in a fictional disaster triggered by the rupture of the real San Andreas Fault, which extends roughly 1,200 kilometers through California, the movie centers on the reunion of a broken family after experiencing the mega disaster.