Will Smith's popularity has PLUMMETED following Oscars slap of Chris Rock

Will Smith’s popularity has severely dropped in the wake of his slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards this past March.

In a report from Variety citing his Q Scores – a metric that measures the fame and appeal of celebrities – statistics indicate that the public’s perception of the 53-year-old actor fell in the wake of his attack on Rock, 57, at the March 27 event at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.

The Oscars exchange between Smith and Rock took place after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, saying, ‘Jada, I love you, G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it,’ in reference to the 1997 movie which featured Demi Moore with a shaved head. (Pinkett Smith, 50, has diagnosed with alopecia, which causes hair loss.)

Smith then walked onstage and smacked Rock, then returned to his seat and shouted at him twice, ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!’ to a stunned audience.

Prior to the Oscars, Smith was a regular in the top five or 10 of the most positively rated actors, based on surveys Q Scores conducted each January and July of 1,800 American consumers ages 6 and up, Q Scores executive VP Henry Schafer told Variety. He was regularly ranked near popular stars such as Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks.

The differential between numbers from this year’s January and July polls indicated what Schafer described as ‘a very significant and precipitous decline’ of Smith’s positive Q Score from 39 to 24, according to the outlet. (A positive Q Score of 24 indicates that 24 percent of people polled consider Smith one of their favorite celebs.)

Concurrently, the negative Q Score rating regarding Smith – in which people polled have a fair or poor opinion of him – skyrocketed from less than 10 to 26. Schafer said the average negative Q Score ranking is around 16-17.

The decline of Smith’s popularity is likely to have an impact in regards to studios or advertisers looking to work with the actor, according to the outlet. It is ‘not as bad as I’ve seen for other celebrities who have experienced antisocial events,’ Schafer said, noting that Tiger Woods reputation took a worse hit in the wake of his cheating scandal in 2009.

Demographic numbers indicated that women and non-Black people polled had a more negative rating than men and Black people polled, according to the outlet.

The Philadelphia-born actor has made multiple apologies over the incident. When he was accepting Best Actor Oscar for his role as tennis patriarch Richard Williams in King Richard, the actor apologized to the Academy and other nominees, but made no reference to Rock.