Sydney Sweeney's Christy, which was released amid much expectations on November 7, failed to take off at the box office and opened to poor revenues. A story of former professional boxer Christy Martin, it earned an estimated $1.3 million across over 2000 theatres despite earning rave reviews for Sweeney's performance.
Opening up about the film's underwhelming box office response, Sweeney said she was "deeply proud" of the film and that makers "don’t always just make art for numbers."
In a lengthy Instagram post, she shared a few unseen pictures of her character from the film and said the experience was one of the "greatest honors" of her life. "This film stands for survival, courage, and hope. through our campaigns, we’ve helped raise awareness for so many affected by domestic violence. we all signed on to this film with the belief that christy’s story could save lives," she wrote, expressing gratitude to those "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. so yes I’m proud. why? because 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. thank you christy. i love you," she added.
Written and directed by David Michôd, Christy is a sports drama that tells the story of Martin (Sydney Sweeney), an ambitious young boxer from West Virginia who rises to prominence and fame and becomes a world champion, while struggling with multiple battles on a personal front after she gets married to her trainer-manager Jim (Ben Foster), and finds herself stuck in an abusive marriage for many years.
Besides headlining the biopic, Sweeney had also produced the film, along with Michôd, Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Teddy Schwarzman, Brent Stiefel and Justin Lothrop. The supporting cast of Christy includes Katy O’Brian, Merritt Wever, Chad Coleman, Ethan Embry, Ben Foster, Bryan Hibbard, and Gilbert Cruz.
Michôd has also co-written the script in collaboration with Mirrah Foulkes, from a story penned by Katherine Fugate. Michôd’s previous credentials include Animal Kingdom (as a writer) and films like The Rover, War Machine and The King (as a director). Christy is Michôd’s first directorial in 6 years.
