I am a huge fan of Sydney Sweeney. She's not only insanely attractive, she also seems like a very grounded, down-to-earth woman with whom I could easily grab a cup of coffee or a beer and have a normal, fun conversation. Her stock rose in my eyes after her viral interview with GQ's Katherine Stoeffel, in which Sweeney refused to accept Stoeffel's premise regarding the American Eagle jeans ad and did not apologize for it.
The memes spawned by that interview are epic, and Sweeney could earn a lot of money teaching Republicans how to respond to biased, leading questions. But that's not what I'm here to discuss. I'm here to talk about Sweeney's latest film, Christy, and its struggles at the box office.
Sydney Sweeney’s new movie, Christy, has suffered a brutal opening round at the box office with just $1.3 million from North American theaters. https://t.co/TjrAcETftv pic.twitter.com/HuhTIVFlnL
— IGN (@IGN) November 10, 2025
Sydney Sweeney’s new movie, Christy, has suffered a brutal opening round at the box office with just $1.3 million from North American theaters.
The biopic sees the Madame Web star assume the role of boxer Christy Martin in what many consider to be an Oscar-bait performance. But the critical reception is mixed, with IGN’s Christy review returning a 7/10. We said: “Sydney Sweeney blazes trails and pulls no punches in a choppy biopic that falters at the finish.”
The R-rated Christy, though, is on the ropes right out of the gate, with $1.305 million from 2,011 theaters domestically. That’s a per-theater average (PTA) of just $649, and is one of the worst openings ever for a film in over 2,000 theaters.
That's not good. But it's also not an indictment of Sweeney, even if the narrative is being set around Christy's bombing:
The failure of 'CHRISTY' is solely due to Sydney Sweeney’s BAD public image on the internet. All her controversies have snowballed, each one worse than the last, and she chose to stay silent — which is NOT the solution. Just think back to the Immaculate era: she didn’t have these… pic.twitter.com/tOe4rSSozc
— Sydney Sweeney Daily (@sweeneydailyx) November 9, 2025
The entire post reads:
The failure of 'CHRISTY' is solely due to Sydney Sweeney’s BAD public image on the internet. All her controversies have snowballed, each one worse than the last, and she chose to stay silent — which is NOT the solution. Just think back to the Immaculate era: she didn’t have these issues, or at least not to this extreme, and the film was well received. People online loved it and went to see it. You can’t sell a film about domestic violence, feminism, and LGBTIQ+ themes to conservatives and Republicans.
What "controversies" (plural)? There was one, it was a fake controversy driven by the mainstream media, and one that had nothing to do with Sweeney. While the Left tries to gaslight us on the issue, they were the ones outraged by the American Eagle "jeans" ad, not conservatives.
And the notion that the film did so poorly at the box office because of Sweeney's politics is laughable, at best.
So what went wrong? Why do pictures of Sydney Sweeney go viral, but her movie bombs? It's largely due to Hollywood and the movie industry itself. For years, they've woke-ified movies, turned out terrible films, and ruined beloved IPs like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, driving away audiences of all political persuasions.
I love movies and watch a lot of them; I also watch YouTube videos about the industry. That's the only way I learned about this movie. I doubt the average American even knows it's in theaters. The film is also a biopic in which Sweeney gained 30 pounds to play a female boxer. The market for such a film is slim to begin with.
Christy is based on the true story of Christy Martin, who rose to success despite having an abusive trainer (who later became her husband).
Film critic Chris Gore gave the film a solid review, saying, "Sydney Sweeney as Christy transformed herself. She put on 30 pounds. She does not look like the Sydney Sweeney that we saw recently," referencing the revealing dress Sweeney recently wore.
"I think she is in line...I can see her getting a nomination for Best Actress," Gore said. "Usually with Best Actress, they give it to an actress who's been around a while and earned it."
"This, she really put her skills to the test," Gore added. Co-host Alan Ng said, "I think it's a very good movie. It was better than I thought it would be."
"Sydney Sweeney does a great job of transforming herself," Ng added. "I think this is better acted...she's not Meryl Streep yet, but you can definitely see an improvement."
There's more evidence that the problem is not Sweeney, but rather the genre and the industry in general. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson recently starred in The Smashing Machine, a biopic about UFC champion Mark Kerr. It had a similar budget to Christy (roughly $40 million, according to IMDb) and, despite being in theaters for a month now, has only grossed about $20 million globally, including a $6 million opening weekend and $11 million in the U.S./Canada. If the issue was Sweeney's politics and a Right v. Left America issue, it would follow that Johnson's movie would be, pardon the pun, a smashing success, no? He's not MAGA, after all.
But it's not. That being said, more people have heard of UFC, The Rock, and Mark Kerr than they have of Christy Martin and even Sydney Sweeney. That will get butts in the seats, albeit not enough to make it a hit. Additionally, people are opting to stay home and stream movies rather than spending a significant amount on the theater experience.
That's sad, but it's the post-COVID, post-Hollywood strike reality theaters are dealing with. Sweeney's politics have nothing to do with it.