Sydney Sweeney’s Christy Team Reportedly Urges Journalist to Go Easy After Box Office Slump, Citing Indie Cinema

Sydney Sweeney is having one of those years where every headline seems to find her. Her new boxing biopic, 'Christy,' just stumbled out of the gate, and the fallout has been messy in a way that only happens when art, marketing, and real-life PR collide.

The opening weekend faceplant

'Christy' arrived with a thud at the box office, landing at #13 on Box Office Mojo's list of Worst Wide Openings of all time. The film pulled in about $1.31 million over its first weekend, which is brutal for a wide release. It's especially rough given what the movie actually is: a biographical sports drama about Christy Martin, a pioneering female boxer who fought through abuse and systemic hostility in a male-dominated sport. Sweeney plays Martin.

PR scramble mode

Behind the scenes, it looks like some frantic damage control has kicked in. Film reporter Eric Italiano posted on November 11, 2025, that he received an unusually direct email from Sweeney's team trying to reframe coverage of the movie. His tweet pretty much sums up the vibe:

"Got this PR email today, never had one like it before - her team's down BAD."

You do not usually see that kind of blunt outreach to critics and journalists, which tells you how nervous the handlers are about the narrative.

Is 'Christy' actually independent? Short answer: no

Sweeney has been talking up the film's indie spirit, including on Instagram, but calling 'Christy' an independent movie is a stretch. It was produced by Anonymous Content, Yoki, Inc., Votiv, Fifty-Fifty Films, and Black Bear Pictures, with Black Bear also handling the U.S. theatrical release. That is not a shoestring collective; those are established companies with real resources.

The rumored production budget is in the $30–40 million range, per World of Reel, which puts it well outside the typical indie lane. Yes, the movie has character-first storytelling and a grounded, unflashy look, but that aesthetic does not make it an independent film by definition. The industry has blurred that term so much that anything that looks modest gets called indie, even when the backing is full-on professional studio infrastructure.

The American Eagle ad that would not stop trending

Complicating all of this is a completely separate fire: Sweeney's American Eagle campaign. The tagline, "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans," triggered waves of online criticism from people who argued it echoed the white supremacist phrase "great genes." Right-wing commentator Oli London amplified the uproar back on July 30, 2025. When GQ asked Sweeney about the controversy during her 'Christy' press, she did not go deep on it, and that non-answer only stoked more think pieces.

Result: the conversation around 'Christy' kept getting dragged back to a denim slogan discourse, instead of the film itself. Fair or not, that spillover press did the movie no favors on opening weekend.

How the rest of 2025 has gone for Sweeney on the big screen

• 'Christy' - about $1.31 million opening. Biographical sports drama on Christy Martin, a trailblazing boxer battling abuse and a hostile system. Sweeney stars as Martin.
• 'Americana' - around $500,000 total. A crime drama in the American West about a struggling country singer (Sweeney) and a stolen Native American painting, circling themes of loss, justice, and redemption.
• 'Eden' - about $2.7 million total. A survival thriller about a group ditching society for a remote island, where the utopia plan predictably devolves into paranoia, betrayal, and violence.

Critics vs audience: a split decision

Despite the box office, 'Christy' is not getting buried critically. On Rotten Tomatoes, it is sitting at 66% from critics and a very enthusiastic 97% from audiences. That gap is interesting in itself and probably explains why the PR push is leaning hard on the idea that this is a word-of-mouth, values-over-revenue project.

Where this leaves 'Christy' right now

On paper, the movie is an uphill climb: soft opening, a budget that does not scream independent, and a marketing storm that escaped the film entirely. But there is a sizable audience score, which suggests people who do buy a ticket are mostly into it. Whether that will matter financially is another story.

'Christy' is currently playing in U.S. theaters. If you saw it, I am genuinely curious where you land: solid character piece sunk by noise, or a misfire that never found its lane?