By Lisa Respers France, NCS
(NCS) — Sydney Sweeney’s newest movie was down for the depend in its opening weekend on the field workplace.
According to the receipts from Box Office Mojo, “Christy,” a boxer biopic, was launched in additional than 2,000 theaters however took in simply $1.3 million on opening weekend.
Boxing films about actual individuals have a robust time connecting with audiences.
“If ‘Christy’ gave even one woman the courage to take her first step toward safety, then we will have succeeded,” Sweeney wrote on Instagram on Monday. “So yes I’m proud. Why? Because we don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact.”
The movie tells the story of Christy Martin, a pioneering American boxer, who survived a homicide try by her trainer-spouse. (Martin is now married to a former competitor, Lisa Holewyne.)
Sweeney is an A-list star however this 12 months she’s been featured in additional controversy-centered headlines about her promoting work than she has been in successful movie and TV tasks. That consideration she’s gotten has not instantly resulted in individuals in seats this 12 months.
What occurred right here? The reality about boxing movies typically and boxing movies starring ladies might have some solutions.
Last 12 months’s “The Fire Inside” starred Ryan Destiny. She performed feminine boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, who competed on the 2012 Summer Olympics and has held a number of championships throughout numerous weight courses.
It received optimistic opinions, however solely earned $1.96 million in its opening weekend, selecting as much as $8 million throughout its total home run, in response to Box Office Mojo.
“Against the Ropes,” a 2004 fictionalized model of the lifetime of boxing supervisor Jackie Kallen, starring Meg Ryan, garnered detrimental opinions and slim huge field workplace receipts to match.
That performed a position in Ryan stepping out of the sector for a bit. During a 2019 interview with the New York Times Ryan was requested if “Against the Ropes” and one other movie, “In the Cut,” “had been better received by critics or audiences” would she have nonetheless have taken a break from her Hollywood profession, as she did.
“I think the feeling with Hollywood was mutual,” Ryan mentioned on the time. “I felt done when they felt done, probably.”
What about boxing films about males? “Hands of Stone,” the Robert De Niro movie about Roberto Durán, opened broadly in 2016 and seems to have tracked very equally to “Christy,” with a weak opening weekend and a gradual comply with.
The Miles Teller biopic of Vinny Pazienza, “Bleed for This,” similarly didn’t fill theaters. “Phantom Punch,” the 2009 Sonny Liston biopic starring Ving Rhames, carried out so poorly it has been virtually erased from the permanent record.
It may really feel like audiences, despite their love of “Raging Bull” and the “Rocky” franchise, simply don’t love biographical boxing films about actual those that a lot.
Except, each as soon as in a whereas, one movie proves an exception to the rule. “The Fighter,” David O. Russell’s fictionalized biography of boxer Micky Ward, was a uncommon worldwide smash in 2010. Ron Howard’s 2005 “Cinderella Man,” about James J. Braddock and starring Russell Crowe, was additionally a uncommon important and business success.
The best-known ladies’s boxing movies aren’t biopics.
Michelle Rodriguez made her movie performing debut in “Girlfight,” a fictional impartial movie. She performed a hot-tempered teen who decides to channel her anger into boxing. The very cheap movie didn’t pull in a ton of cash, however it did launch Rodriguez’s movie profession, which has included the billion-dollar “Fast & Furious” franchise. It additionally made a title for Karyn Kusama, who later directed “Jennifer’s Body” and is an govt producer of “Yellowjackets.”
Then there’s the largest of all of them: the fictional 2004 movie “Million Dollar Baby.” Not solely did it discover business success, it met vast important acclaim. It received finest image on the Academy Awards and stars Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman received finest actress and finest supporting actor, respectively. Clint Eastwood, who pushed for the movie to be made and costarred as properly, additionally received a finest director Oscar.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.