Sydney Sweeney’s latest film, “Christy,” suffered one of the worst opening weekends for a new movie released “wide” — on more than 2,000 theaters — in the past 20 years, and industry analysts, the film’s studio and Sweeney herself are left to wonder why it failed so miserably.
After all, Sweeney is one of the most famous and hyped young actors working right now. “Christy,” in which she stars as Hall of Fame boxer Christy Martin, was supposed to showcase her acting talents and maybe garner her an Academy Award nomination. But, audiences clearly were not interested.
Over on r/boxoffice, a sub-Reddit community focused on discussions about movies’ box-office performance, some people said the distributor didn’t do enough to promote “Christy,” which only earned $1.3 million over the weekend. Others said audiences just don’t care for gritty sports biopics about troubled fighters, as also shown by the underwhelming box office for Dwayne Johnson’s “The Smashing Machine,” even though Johnson usually delivers box-office hits and received acclaim for his performance.
Others say Sweeney has been too over-exposed, or that her team has tried too hard to promote her as a buxom sex symbol, instead of a serious actress, by having her hawk soap made with her bath water or pose for a “Lolita”-inspired photo shoot. Still others say that indie movies or mid-level adult dramas just don’t make money like they used to, or that the Emmy-nominated “Euphoria” star has never really been a box-office draw. This is her third, straight box-office disappointment of 2025.
But much discussion has focused on Sweeney’s participation this past summer in a controversial ad for American Eagle jeans — and whether that made her “toxic” to a segment of movie-going audiences.
The ad was criticized for using the slogan, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” which appeared to play on the idea that the white, blond, blue-eyed actress has “great genes,” Yahoo reported. Both she and the ad were accused of promoting language around eugenics and racial superiority. As Sweeney was attacked by people on the left side of the political aisle, she became a darling of the right, with President Donald Trump taking to social media to praise and defend her — especially after he heard she was a registered Republican.
It appears that Sweeney didn’t do herself — and potentially, “Christy” — any favors by trying to sidestep the controversy, while doing press for the movie.
In a cover for GQ magazine, the writer, Katherine Stoeffel, gave Sweeney several chances to respond to the controversy, according to Yahoo and to clips of the interview posted on X. When Stoeffel said that, in today’s political climate, white people joking about genetic superiority could be considered offensive, Sweeney replied, “I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
To some potential “Christy” viewers, Sweeney’s response sounded like a refusal to denounce the racist reading of the ad, Yahoo reported. She also said she didn’t have time to focus on the controversy because she had been busy working on the upcoming season of “Euphoria.” She insisted that the message of the ad was just about denim and self-confidence, not about anything else. She said, “I mean, the reaction was definitely a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.”
Sweeney’s reluctance to address people’s concerns about the ad’s racist reading disappointed fans, according to one person in the r/boxoffice sub-Reddit. “Sydney in the past has been pro-BLM, pro-LGBTQ, pro-choice/pro-planned parenthood,” the person said. “So her being a registered Republican who refuses to push back on Trump’s praise for her alienated a lot of her fans — who are now being vocal about how disgusted they are with her.”
Another person said they don’t care about a person’s political affiliation but “plenty of Sweeney’s female fans and LGBTQ fans are grossed out.” The person continued: “The MAGA crowd insisted she would now be a huge box-office draw. It didn’t work. All 3 movies she was in that came out after Trump praised her for being Republican have now flopped. In short, her female fans and LGBTQ fans feel that she sold them out in order to pander to MAGA dudes who think women exist just to be sex objects and have babies.”
Sweeney’s decision to “smugly blow off” questions from the GQ reporter, may not have caused “Christy” to bomb, another person said. “But IMO she has done some legit damage to her image and appeal and when your movie is already an uphill battle, that doesn’t help.”
Several people pointed out that “Christy” was an indie film with a “niche” appeal. It tells the story of Christy Martin’s ascension to fame in the 1990s as she becomes one of America’s first famous female boxers, as well as how she had to escape an abusive marriage to her trainer-turned-husband. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman praised “Christy” as “a powerfully compelling and unusual boxing biopic,” for which Sweeney gives “a potent, true-note, game-changing knockout of a performance.” Other reviews were more mixed, and it only holds a 67% Rotten Tomatoes rating from some 130 critics.
People on the r/boxoffice sub-Reddit pointed out that audiences for indie movies tend to be left-leaning, urban dwellers. “Whoever Sydney Sweeney is trying to pander to do not care to buy tickets of her films,” one person said. “They just worship her on social media.
To Redditors, Sweeney’s next box-office test comes in December with the psychological thriller, “The Housemaid.” Directed by Paul Feig, it also stars Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar, and could turn things around for Sweeney, especially given that the movie is based on the best-selling novel of the same name.
Meanwhile, Sweeney shrugged off “Christy’s” failure to connect with theater audiences this past week. “We don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact,” she said in a lengthy Instagram message to her 2.5 million followers “And Christy has been the most impactful project of my life.”