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Sydney Sweeney is taking the dismal box office performance of Christy, the R-rated biographical drama in which she plays trailblazing boxer Christy Martin, in her stride.
The film, directed by David Michôd, opened to $1.3m this weekend, making for one of the worst US starts ever for a movie opening in more than 2,000 theaters.
“We don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact,” Sweeney wrote on Instagram. “And christy has been the most impactful project of my life.”
The film, co-starring Ben Foster, Merritt Wever and Katy O’Brian, chronicles Martin’s rise to fame in the 1990s, as she went from the daughter of a West Virginia coal miner to one of the most prominent female boxers in the US. It also depicts her coach-turned-husband’s physical abuse, culminating in an attempt on her life. The film received mixed reviews, with some critics praising Sweeney’s performance, in which she plays Martin over 20 years, as worthy of award consideration.
In his review for the Guardian, critic Benjamin Lee said the film “just isn’t nearly good enough, a by-the-numbers slog that fails to prove Sweeney’s status as a one to watch”.
As she has in promotion for the film, Sweeney highlighted its handling of domestic violence in her Instagram post. “This film stands for survival, courage, and hope,” she wrote. “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,” she added. “If Christy gave even one woman the courage to take her first step toward safety, then we will have succeeded.”
Christy was the first theatrical release from Black Bear, an indie company which also produced the film for $15m and sold its international distribution rights. It’s the latest in a tough year at the box office for Sweeney, a breakout star from the HBO dramas Euphoria and The White Lotus. Both Eden, a survival thriller in which Sweeney co-starred with Ana de Armas and Vanessa Kirby, and Americana, a drama co-starring Paul Walter Hauser, fizzled at the box office this summer.
It’s also the latest example of adult-oriented dramas struggling to connect with theatrical audiences. Like Christy, the psychodrama Die, My Love, starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence, as well as the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere and another boxing drama, The Rock’s The Smashing Machine, all garnered praise along the festival circuit but disappointed at the box office.
Sweeney, who led romantic comedy Anyone But You to a $220m worldwide gross, will next appear on screen alongside Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar in The Housemaid, directed by Paul Feig. The psychological thriller, based on the 2022 novel by Freida McFadden, will premiere in the US on 19 December.
