Sydney Sweeney’s ‘Christy’ Flops After American Eagle Controversy

Sydney Sweeney’s latest film Christy suffered a knockout blow as it arrived in select theaters over the weekend, grossing a meager $1.3 million.

The film, starring Sweeney as Hall of Fame boxer Christy Martin, was released in 2,011 theaters, averaging $649 per venue, according to The Wrap.

The opening for the movie – which had a 67% score on Rotten Tomatoes Sunday evening – ranked in the top 12 worst ever four movies showing on more than 2000 screens, Box Office Mojo reported.

Three of the films ranking below it were released within the first 14 months of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak in March 2020, a timeframe when movie theatres took a huge business hit amid health mandates.

Christy’s paltry early returns at the box office comes about four months after Sweeney, 28, was at the center of controversy as result of an ad campaign for American Eagle that referred to her genetics.

The label’s autumn advertising rollout, centered around the actress, had the tagline, ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.’

‘Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour… my genes are blue,’ Sweeney said an accompanying video.

In the fallout, critics of the ad campaign said it promoted racial dog whistling, while President Donald Trump showed his support for the actress and the brand.

Sweeney told GQ earlier this month that she found it ‘surreal’ that the scandal grew so big as to attract attention from the White House.

‘I did a jean ad, ‘ Sweeney told the outlet. ‘I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans.’

She added, ‘All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.’  

The sports drama was the initial movie the production studio Black Bear Pictures was handling distribution for in the U.S., according to The Wrap. 

Other movies the studio has put out include 2014’s The Imitation Game, 2017’s Mudbound and 2024’s Sing Sing.

Black Bear has been venturing toward a business model centered around distribution, production and sales over the past two years, according to the outlet. The company was in charge of distributing the movies Dumb Money and Conclave in the UK in 2023, according to The Wrap. 

Sweeney, promoting the film in an interview this past Friday,  said she got so immersed in her role as Martin, she dealt with injuries including a bloody nose and a concussion.

The Emmy-nominated actress told The Sun Friday about how she and her co-stars approached the fight scenes during production of the motion picture.

‘The girls and all the fights you see are real,’ the Spokane, Washington-born star said.

The Euphoria actress chat with the outlet about the hits she took to convincingly played the Hall of Fame pugilist in the biopic.

Sweeney told the outlet, ‘When I walked in and I met with everyone, I said, “I want you to hit me. And I want you to hit me hard. And can I hit you?”‘ 

She added, ‘When you watch all those fights, we’re actually hitting each other. We were knocking each other out, we were getting bloody noses. I got [a] concussion. We were actually fighting.’

Sweeney on Saturday took to Instagram with a carousel of photos for her 25.4M followers documenting the production of the motion picture.

The A-list actress said in the post caption that making the movie, which was directed by filmmaker David Michôd, ‘will stay in [her] heart forever.’

‘I walked onto set everyday surrounded by a crew that poured their hearts and souls into this story,’ Sweeney said. ‘I fought alongside a group of women who became my family.

‘We trained harder than we ever thought we could then would end up singing our hearts out on the ring floor.’

Sweeney paid tribute to Martin, who she said inspired everyone on the movie ‘to step into our power.

‘Her story made us fight harder for ourselves and for every woman who has ever been silenced,’ Sweeney said. ‘This film was painful, joyful, resilient, beautiful, it was everything.’

The White Lotus alum wrapped up her statement in thanking the movie’s director Michôd, whose past credits include War Machine, Animal Kingdom and The Rover.

‘Thank you David for believing in me,’ Sweeney said, adding that she ‘will never forget the way it changed’ her.

In her chat with The Sun, Sweeney also credited costar Katy O’Brian, 36 – who portrays fellow boxer Lisa Holewyne – for her strength and resilience.

‘Katy is a badass,’ Sweeney said. ‘I mean, she is strong. Katy’s only request was, “Please don’t break my nose.”‘

The interview with Sweeney also detailed her intense training regimen for the role of the athlete, which has already generated early Oscar buzz.

‘I built my own Rocky gym in my grandma’s shed and I trained back home in Idaho,’ said Sweeney.

Sweeney said she ‘put on 35 pounds during’ a three-month span in which she exercised frequently and consumed protein shakes.

Said Sweeney: ‘I worked with my weight trainer in the morning and night, and then I had a boxing coach I worked with every day for two to three hours.’

Martin, who was Don King’s first-ever female client, gained national spotlight in March of 1996 when she captured the World Boxing Council women’s lightweight championship in a bloody Las Vegas bout against Deirdre Gogarty.

Martin, who was nicknamed The Coalminer’s Daughter, was on the undercard of the infamous 1997 bout in which Mike Tyson bit the ear of Evander Holyfield.

She is also the only female boxer to ever be featured on the cover of the magazine Sports Illustrated.

She also fought Laila Ali, the daughter of late boxing icon Muhammad Ali, in a high-profile 2003 bout in which Laila knocked her out.

According to BoxRec, Martin holds a record of 49-7-3, winning more than half of her contests with 31 career knockouts. Her last fight was a 2012 loss to Mia St. John. 

Martin’s life story has been explored before for a cinematic project, as actress Amy Schumer was linked to a film about the boxer in April of 2018.