Copyright Screen Rant
After making waves on TV, Sydney Sweeney's position as one of Hollywood's biggest young stars grew in 2024 as Anyone But You defied box office expectations. The rom-com co-starring Glen Powell made $220 million worldwide. Studios were already very interested in working with the now 28-year-old actress, with Madame Web and Immaculate hoping to build on her rising stardom. The former was a box office disappointment for Sony, grossing $100 million worldwide, even if it found an audience on Netflix later on. The latter took home a respectable $35 million haul around the world. But, it was really Anyone But You's performance that helped put multiple movies in motion for 2025 releases. Sweeney's busy year has now continued with the release of Christy, her boxing biopic about Christy Martin. While her performance has been praised by critics, the movie itself has been met with a lukewarm reception. That continued at the box office, as Christy's opening weekend continued a string of disappointing results for her. She's now seen the Quentin Tarantino-esque Western Americana, Ron Howard real-life drama Eden, and Christy underperform. While she is the commonality between them all, it is far too early to start completely rethinking her standing in the industry. She's got another movie coming this year that will be a better barometer test for her status as a box office attraction. Sydney Sweeney's 3 Box Office Failures This Year Aren't Because Of Her In the aftermath of how Christy did at the box office and how it followed Americana and Eden's disappointments, I've seen a lot of suggestions that Sweeney is to blame; that these movies all underperformed because she was in them or the lacking results prove audiences aren't that interested in her movies. But it'd be unfair to pin Christy, Americana, and Eden's box office results squarely on her. There's no doubt that the studios involved in each hoped that having her attached would result in the titles doing better business. Audiences had demonstrated a desire to see her on the big screen. But did any of them even know these films were out? Americana opened to roughly $500,000 and hasn't had any additional box office reporting done. Eden bombed with a $1 million opening and only managed to earn $2.7 million worldwide. Now, Christy opened to $1.3 million domestically. In each case, though, these films arrived with minimal marketing campaigns. The studios didn't do what was necessary to position these movies for box office success, so is there even a point in harping on their financial performances? Americana and Eden both gained distribution a while after their festival debuts. The low acquisition costs for Lionsgate and Vertical were done with the long game in mind, not the short-term box office. Christy is a slightly different story, as Black Bear boarded the project as a distributor before its festival launch. Sweeney did a bit more press for this, promoting the real-life story aspect and her physical transformation, but this was never going to be a huge box office hit. Christy is more of a sleeper awards play with hopes of getting Sweeney a Best Actress Oscar 2026 nomination. It's easy to point at Sweeney as the problem, though, given her involvement in each. She's either the lead or a central figure in all, and she's also stirred up controversies during this run. Whether it was her American Eagle ad and her reported political alignment, it's become common to suggest that her controversial status also played a role in how these movies did. There may be some truth to that, as some audiences may not be as interested in Sweeney for these reasons, but that still ignores a big part of the story here. It'd be one thing if Americana, Eden, and Christy were the only indie dramas that struggled to get people to check them out in theaters. But they aren't the outliers. They're part of the norm. Looking at Christy's opening weekend reaffirms this. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson's Die, My Love couldn't crack $3 million. If Katniss and Batman can't sell a psychological drama, the state of independent cinema becomes much bleaker, with the issue of audience interest extending well beyond Christy and Sweeney. Just about any star is struggling to turn an independent movie into even a respectable box office earner. Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Jenna Ortega, Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Lopez, Denzel Washington, Nicolas Cage, Dylan O'Brien, and Daniel Day-Lewis are among other notable names who've had big indies fail commercially. While strong performances from Americana, Eden, and Christy could have further built up Sweeney's standing at the box office, their failures shouldn't take it down. A chance to really figure out how audiences feel about her is right around the corner anyway. The Housemaid Is A Better Case Study In Sydney Sweeney's Box Office Appeal Whereas her last three films weren't major financial plays, Sweeney's next movie, The Housemaid, is a big bet on her at the box office. Lionsgate is back in business with her after Americana and is looking at this book adaptation to be an end-of-the-year hit when it debuts on December 19. This movie was designed to be a strong theatrical play after Freida McFadden's novel became a best-seller and surged in popularity on TikTok. That's why Lionsgate tapped Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) to direct it, cast Sweeney in the lead role, and brought Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Skelnar in to strengthen the supporting cast. With a reported $25-$40 million budget and the psychological thriller genre, Lionsgate expects The Housemaid to be a winner. Sweeney's ability to bring audiences to theaters as one of the film's biggest draws will have a profound effect on how well the movie does. It's positioned as counter-programming to the expected dominance of Avatar: Fire and Ash, giving younger and female audiences something that might be more of interest to them than another trip to Pandora. I even think that the December release was done by Lionsgate out of the hope that The Housemaid will have legs as strong as Anyone But You. As a result, if The Housemaid obliterates box office projections and becomes another hit for Sweeney, her position as a young star will only grow. It'll be even easier to overlook how Americana, Christy, and Eden did then.
