As the fall movie season unfolds, a familiar pattern has emerged: auteur-driven films are hitting theaters but failing to resonate with audiences. It’s a sharp contrast to years past, when strong reviews and originality were enough to drive ticket sales.
That aside, Sweeney has a new movie out this weekend, playing on over 2,000 screens nationwide — the boxing biopic “Christy,” directed by David Michod (”Animal Kingdom”). When I saw the film at TIFF in September, I praised Sweeney’s strong performance as Christy Martin but found the overall film flat and by-the-numbers.
The film arrives amid a recent GQ interview in which Sweeney refused to apologize for her American Eagle denim campaign, centered on the tagline “Great Jeans.” For some reason, the campaign sparked discourse about racism and… eugenics? Sweeney’s refusal to bow to the mob of detractors has, predictably, sparked even more backlash.
Regardless, there’s some Oscar buzz around Sweeney’s performance in “Christy,” but let’s be honest — a nom won’t happen for her. Partly because of the “Great Jeans” controversy, but more importantly because the film just isn’t that good. Audiences aren’t showing up for “Christy” either. Its wide release, via distributor Black Bear, only managed to pull in $400K in Thursday previews. Those numbers make “The Smashing Machine0 look like a blockbuster. We’re looking at roughly a $3M opening weekend for “Christy.”
There’s no official word yet on the production budget, but if I had to venture a guess, I’d peg it at around $30–40M. Then again, Deadline recently reported that Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing may have cost as much as $65 million, and that is almost double what the trades were reporting.
What’s preventing “Christy” from connecting with audiences comes down to a few factors: lack of awareness, mediocre reviews, and the fact that boxing biopics rarely light up the box office. The film currently sits at 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and 60 on Metacritic.
“Christy” is bound to join a growing list of adult-oriented, Oscar-bait films that have stumbled at the box office this fall. Other examples include “The Smashing Machine,” “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” “Anemone,” “Roofman,” “Bugonia,” and “Kiss of the Spider-Woman.”