Sydney Sweeney had a rough 2025 at the box office, culminating in the launch of a new franchise following the success of The Housemaid. Her earlier flop, Christy, a biopic about the life of American boxer Christy Martin, was a complete bomb in theaters.
Now that it’s on HBO Max, Sweeney’s home turf thanks to Euphoria, it debuted as the number one movie on the streamer, finally finding success away from the big screen. It’s also continuing the trend for Sweeney of two steps backwards for every one step forward her career takes.
Sydney Sweeney Comes Out Swinging
Christy seems like an odd choice for Sydney Sweeney. It’s about the boxing champion, who fought in the first female boxing main event on pay-per-view, the first female boxer on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and easily the most popular female boxer of the 90s. Her rise was sudden, thanks in part to legendary promoter Don King (The Walking Dead’s Chad Coleman), and the support of her husband, James (Ben Foster, who was born to play creeps like James Martin). It’s the latter that led to the downfall of her career and nearly cost her life.
The meat of Christy’s story isn’t the boxing career; it’s the abusive, codependent relationship with James, which is especially difficult as Christy’s a lesbian. Closeted to start with, but that doesn’t stop James from going to extreme lengths to retain his control over her. Drugs, sex, blackmail videos, you name it, James does it, right down to attempted murder. It’s an awkward mashup of underdog sports movie and terrifying domestic abuse that doesn’t quite work, but it’s not Sweeney’s fault.
Christy Is A Tough Story For Hollywood
Christy Martin goes against Sweeney’s public image as a blonde bombshell with great jeans. It’s the same as her earlier film, Reality, about Reality Winner’s interrogation by the FBI for her role as a national security whistleblower. These are not glamorous roles, and Sweeney does her best to bring them to life, but in the case of Christy, she’s undercut by a confused script, and going up against the underrated acting powerhouse that is Ben Foster is a task for any performer.
No one was surprised when Christy bombed at the box office with a haul of only $2 million. Fresh off the “great jeans” scandal, the film became a lightning rod for a culture war, with one side boycotting and the other showing no interest in a film about a lesbian boxer. It was a no-win situation, which, at the end of the day, with the film’s arrival on streaming, ultimately meant nothing. Anyone can now stream it no matter their personal feelings on the actress, in the privacy of their own home, and without paying movie theater prices, which means a lot of Sweeney fans are now checking it out, and a lot of her detractors are now hate-watching.
At the end of the day, it’s a lot of online discourse over a film that’s ultimately, decent. Christy isn’t the best boxing movie, it’s not the best movie about domestic violence, but it is a close examination of the fascinating life of Christy Martin, who today, is living her best life as an out lesbian with her partner, and given the hell she endured to get there, you can’t help but cheer for her. As for Sydney Sweeney, Euphoria Season 3 is about to debut, so you might want to stay off social media for a few days.
Christy is now streaming on HBO Max.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
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