LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 14: Sydney Sweeney attends the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
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Sydney Sweeney may be one of the most popular young stars on the planet, but her appearance in a movie is not a recipe for success on its own. In fact, Sydney Sweeney’s new movie, Christy, just became one of the worst-grossing wide-released movies in box office history. And that is no exaggeration.
Christy, in which Sydney Sweeney plays real-life boxer Christy Martin, grossed just $1.3 million domestically its opening weekend, an average of $646 per theater, which puts it in the bottom 10 of wide-released movies ever, given that it opened in 2,184 theaters around the country. That is an 11th place opening, losing to #10, Tron Ares, which was released a month ago on October 10.
According to box office charts, this makes Sweeney’s Christy the ninth worst opening for a movie in over 2,000 theaters, behind a number of movies you have likely never heard of, like Hitpig, The King’s Daughter, Delgo, and more.
Why did this happen? The movie didn’t even review poorly; it has a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it was supposed to create awards buzz for Sweeney in the biopic. How can such a big star in a decent movie flop this hard?
Well, one thing is that with very few exceptions, Sydney Sweeney movies are either streaming-only or have not-great earnings at the box office, such as:
- Eden (supporting role) – $1.5 million domestic
- Immaculate (star) – $15.6 million domestic
- Madame Web (supporting) – $43 million domestic
- Anyone But You (star) – $88 million domestic (and $220 million global)
The rest of her movies are very limited release or only on streaming, with no box office figures. The obvious exception here is the blockbuster romcom hit Anyone But You, but that’s the only one. Sweeney first broke out in Euphoria in a supporting role as Cassie, and also appeared in The White Lotus, meaning her TV roles have done better than film. In this case, she’s starring in a biopic of an athlete that few have ever heard of, whether her portrayal is good or not.
Outside of the numbers, Sweeney is well-known for her looks (recently going viral for a sheer red carpet look I cannot even post here), and Christy does not rely on that at all, as Sweeney gained lots of muscle for part and did her best to look as much like the hard-charging Christy Martin as possible. A far cry from Anyone But You.
Sweeney has also stumbled into controversy as of late, first with a “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” ad for American Eagle, which some interpreted as an implication that her “genes” as a beautiful white woman were being referenced. This past week, she was asked about the campaign, but did not want to address the issue and gave unsatisfactory answers. Some believe she’s now shifted into being an almost right-wing Hollywood icon, despite never talking about her political views openly. It does, however, seem rather unlikely that this recent interview blowback has anything to do with Christy’s failure.
Sweeney has a number of big movies coming up, including an adaptation of the video game Split Fiction and a Gundam movie. She’s also in a remake of The Housemaid opposite Amanda Seyfried, which is out December 19. We’ll have to see how those movies perform, but they almost literally cannot get worse than this.
Update: In the last hour, Sweeney posted the following comment on Instagram:
i am so deeply proud of this movie.
proud of the film david made. proud of the story we told. proud to represent someone as strong and resilient as Christy Martin. this experience has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
this film stands for survival, courage, and hope. through our campaigns, we’ve helped raise awareness for so many affected by domestic violence. we all signed on to this film with the belief that christy’s story could save lives.
thank you to everyone who saw, felt, and believed and will believe in this story for years to come. if christy gave even one woman the courage to take her first step toward safety, then we will have succeeded. so yes I’m proud. why? because we don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact. and christy has been the most impactful project of my life. thank you christy. i love you.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/11/10/sydney-sweeneys-new-movie-has-one-of-the-worst-openings-in-box-office-history/
