November 7, 2025. Theaters across America opened their doors to Christy, a biopic about legendary boxer Christy Martin starring Sydney Sweeney. By Sunday night, the numbers came in. $1.3 million. Opening weekend. On 2,000-plus screens. With a $15 million budget. That’s not a typo. One point three million dollars, making it the 9th worst wide release opening in box office history when excluding rereleases.
The internet did what the internet does best: it pounced. Twitter declared Sydney Sweeney’s hot girl summer officially over. Reddit threads dissected whether she’s box office poison after four consecutive 2025 flops. Ruby Rose, who’d worked with Sweeney on another project, posted a now-deleted thread on Threads essentially blaming Sweeney’s acting for the disaster. Entertainment journalists wrote think pieces about whether the Euphoria star’s movie career was already finished before it truly began.
Then Sydney Sweeney did something unexpected. She didn’t hide. She didn’t make excuses. She didn’t blame marketing or the pandemic’s lingering effects on theatrical audiences. Instead, she posted on Instagram: “I am so deeply proud of this movie. Proud to represent someone as strong and resilient as Christy Martin.”
That caption, posted alongside behind-the-scenes photos showing her physical transformation and dedication to the role, sparked a completely different conversation. Was Sweeney delusional for being proud of a catastrophic failure? Or was she actually onto something about measuring success beyond opening weekend grosses? Can a film bomb financially while succeeding in more important ways?
The answer reveals everything about where Hollywood stands in 2025, what it means to be a movie star when streaming dominates, and whether Sydney Sweeney’s response represents maturity or just really good crisis management. Because here’s the thing nobody’s talking about in all the box office schadenfreude: Christy tells the true story of a woman who survived attempted murder by her abusive husband and returned to boxing. If even one person leaves that theater with courage to escape their own abusive situation, does the box office number actually matter?
The Numbers Don’t Lie (But They Don’t Tell the Whole Story Either)
Let’s start with the brutal facts. Christy opened in 2,206 theaters November 7, earning approximately $590 per screen. That’s the kind of number that makes studio executives physically ill. For comparison, Venom: The Last Dance earned $51 million the same weekend. Heretic made $11 million. Even The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, a faith-based family film with minimal marketing, pulled in $11.1 million.
When you rank Christy among all wide releases, it lands at number 12 for worst openings ever. Exclude rereleases and it jumps to number 9. That puts it in company with legendary disasters like Zyzzyx Road (which famously earned $30 on its opening weekend, though that was technically a technicality to fulfill SAG requirements) and other films so forgettable their titles don’t even register.
The $15 million budget means Christy needs to earn at least $37.5 million (accounting for marketing and distribution costs using standard 2.5x multiplier) just to break even. At the current pace, it’ll be lucky to cross $3 million domestically. International prospects look equally grim. This is, by any objective financial measure, a catastrophic failure.
Box Office Mojo lists the total at $1.4 million through its first weekend, though some reports cite $1.3 million. Either way, these aren’t numbers anyone involved wants to see. Sony Pictures, which distributed the film, will take massive losses. Investors who funded the $15 million budget won’t see returns. Theater owners who dedicated screens to the film lost potential revenue from showing something, anything else.
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The 2025 Flop Streak Nobody Saw Coming
Here’s what makes Christy‘s failure particularly painful: it’s Sydney Sweeney’s fourth consecutive box office disappointment in 2025. The pattern looks devastating:
Americana opened to $500,000 on a $9 million budget. The drama about a California family dealing with economic struggles arrived in February to complete audience indifference and scathing reviews.
Eden earned $2.7 million on a $35 million budget. The survival thriller directed by Ron Howard and co-starring Jude Law premiered at Toronto International Film Festival to mild reception before dying in limited release.
Echo Valley got dumped onto Apple TV+ after a limited theatrical run, despite costing $80 million and featuring Julianne Moore. The film went straight to streaming because Sony knew the theatrical release would be a disaster.
Now Christy brings the 2025 total to approximately $5 million in combined domestic box office against $129 million in combined budgets. That’s not just missing targets, that’s complete annihilation of any argument that Sydney Sweeney opens movies.
The contrast with Anyone But You hurts. That December 2023 rom-com with Glen Powell earned $219 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, becoming a surprise hit that everyone credited to Sydney and Glen’s chemistry and promotional savvy. It proved Sydney could open movies, at least in the right circumstances. Now barely two years later, her name apparently means nothing to ticket buyers.
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What Critics Actually Said About the Film
Despite box office disaster, Christy earned mixed-to-positive reviews suggesting the failure isn’t entirely about quality. Roger Ebert’s site called it “formulaic” but praised Sydney for giving “her all” and subsumming “her blonde, blue-eyed beauty beneath a brunette mullet and brown contacts.”
The Seattle Times wrote: “The mashup of genres may feel a bit tonally rough, but it ultimately works, not least because of its unifying factor: Sweeney, who imbues her no-holds-barred portrayal of Martin with both sweetness and rage, with brio and real vulnerability.”
Critics acknowledged Sydney’s physical transformation and commitment to the role. She trained extensively in boxing, gaining muscle and learning proper technique. The film chronicles Christy Martin’s rise from poor West Virginia girl to America’s most famous female boxer in the 1990s, then her 2010 near-death experience when her husband James Martin (played by Ben Foster) shot and stabbed her before she escaped and survived.
The story deserves telling. Christy Martin broke barriers for women’s boxing, appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated and fighting on Mike Tyson undercards. Her survival of domestic violence that nearly killed her adds a tragic dimension to her athletic achievements. The film doesn’t shy away from showing the abuse, the control, and the terror of being trapped.
But critics also noted the film felt “well-intentioned but uneven,” struggling to balance sports biopic formula with domestic violence drama. That tonal uncertainty might’ve contributed to audience confusion about what kind of film they were being sold.
The Ruby Rose Controversy
Just when things couldn’t get worse, Ruby Rose poured gasoline on the fire. The actress took to Threads (yes, people still use Threads apparently) with a lengthy post that essentially blamed Sydney Sweeney’s acting for Christy‘s failure.
Rose, who’d worked with Sweeney on an unspecified project, wrote that the original script was “incredible” but the final film suffered from poor performances. While Rose didn’t name Sydney explicitly in the initial post, context made clear who she meant. She later deleted the thread after backlash accused her of unprofessional jealousy.
The attack felt particularly cruel given Sydney’s visible commitment to the role and the fact that she also produced the film. Criticizing someone’s acting after a box office disaster when they’re already facing industry-wide mockery reads as kicking someone when they’re down. Rose’s own career trajectory, from Orange Is the New Black to increasingly obscure projects, suggests projection might be involved.
The controversy dominated entertainment news cycles for days, overshadowing actual conversations about the film’s themes or Sydney’s performance. That’s modern Hollywood: box office failure becomes a bigger story than the art itself.
Sydney’s Response That Changes Everything
Sydney Sweeney’s Instagram post responding to the box office disaster deserves full examination because it represents either remarkable maturity or expertly crafted PR pivot. She wrote:
“I am so deeply proud of this movie. Proud to represent someone as strong and resilient as Christy Martin. 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. 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.”
That statement does several things simultaneously. First, it reframes success beyond box office, which is necessary given the catastrophic numbers but also genuinely meaningful for a film about domestic violence survival. Second, it demonstrates gratitude rather than defensiveness, thanking people who saw the film rather than blaming those who didn’t. Third, it pivots from Sydney’s career to Christy Martin’s story, making it about representation rather than personal ego.
Whether this represents Sydney’s genuine feelings or crisis management from her team almost doesn’t matter. The response itself becomes part of the narrative, showing how modern stars navigate failure in social media age. You can’t hide disasters anymore, so you recontextualize them.
Why the Film Actually Failed
Marketing deserves significant blame for Christy‘s failure. Many potential audience members had no idea it existed until reading about its box office disaster. Sony’s campaign focused heavily on Sydney’s physical transformation but failed to communicate what kind of film this was or why audiences should care about Christy Martin in 2025.
The November 7 release date put it between Halloween horror holdovers and upcoming Thanksgiving releases, a dead zone where films go to die. It faced Venom 3 and Heretic for audience attention while knowing Wicked and Gladiator II would arrive two weeks later.
The R rating for violence and language restricted potential audiences. Families couldn’t attend. Boxing fans might’ve been interested but weren’t targeted effectively. Domestic violence survivors, who might find the story powerful, weren’t directly marketed to either.
The film being simultaneously too niche (female boxing biopic) and too heavy (domestic violence survival story) created a marketing nightmare. It’s not a date movie. It’s not family entertainment. It’s not escapism. In the theatrical landscape dominated by franchise spectacle and streaming convenience, selling serious drama about real people becomes nearly impossible.
Your Take on Sydney’s Response
Do you think Sydney Sweeney’s response to the box office disaster was genuine or just damage control? Should films be judged by opening weekend numbers or cultural impact? Would you watch Christy despite its financial failure? Drop your honest opinions because this conversation matters beyond just one actress or one movie.
Share this article with anyone who thinks box office numbers tell the complete story about film quality. Follow for continued coverage of how Hollywood measures success in the streaming age and whether traditional metrics still matter. Because Sydney Sweeney says she’s “deeply proud” of a $1.3 million opening raises questions the industry needs to answer about what success actually means when art meets commerce.
