It is hard to deny that Sydney Sweeney has some big things in front of her, but back-to-back box office bombs were probably not part of the plan for 2025. While Sweeney found huge success with the sleeper hit Anyone But You, pushed along by a flurry of tabloid headlines about her possible real-life romantic link with leading man Glen Powell, and also had strong performances in the creepy horror movie Immaculate and, of course, her role in the HBO Max series Euphoria, her recent run of movies has not quite been anything to shout about. Add in some social media controversy over her bath water and the state of her jeans, and the year has probably not panned out quite as expected for the young actress.
In the last two weeks, Sweeney has appeared in Americana, an independent crime thriller featuring Sweeney alongside Halsey, Eric Dane, and Paul Walter Hauser, which has waited two years to make it to cinemas, and Ron Howard’s historical survival thriller, Eden, which features Jude Law, Ana de Armas, and Vanessa Kirby. Performance-wise, Americana barely made any mark at the box office with under $500,000 in ticket sales, sinking as one of the worst-performing movies of the year. This was followed by Eden’s release this weekend to the tune of just $1.9 million despite a $50 million budget.
It is also worth noting that while Sweeney’s 2024 hit Immaculate is the only thing standing between her and a triple-flop scenario, as just a month prior to that film Sony released the notorious Madame Web. While the Marvel movie’s problems were many, Sweeney’s joint lead role puts it in the same arena as Eden, which comes with an ensemble cast but has failed to capture the attention of audiences.
Is Sydney Sweeney Making Bad Movies?
Discounting the disastrous 10% critic’s score that Madame Web was pinned with, both Americana and Eden have been well received by audiences and were not complete write-offs for critics. The only problem is that not many people are actually watching them.
Americana fared best of the bunch with a 67% Tomatometer score and 77% Popcornmeter rating, suggesting that there is nothing wrong with the movie other than its position as a very small movie in a large pond of studio films with massive marketing budgets. While some even suggested the movie had suffered due to the recent backlash against Sweeney for her appearance in a jeans campaign for American Eagle, her costar Halsey recently called out those boycotting “an exceptional film” over some “24-hour gossip tabloid denim bullsh-t.”
Eden did not quite find the same amount of love from critics, with a 55% score and several appraisals calling the movie a “campy, elongated episode of Survivor.” Audiences were once again happier with the result, gifting Howard’s movie a 72% rating. However, the dismal box office – especially in light of Weapons’ $15 million haul on its third weekend – is proof that sometimes it takes more than a few recognizable names to get audiences into theaters.
Sweeney’s next movie could potentially be both one of her greatest achievements but another box office struggler at the same time. Christy is a biographical movie about the life of former professional boxer Christy Martin. Sweeney underwent a complete transformation to play the title role, and there are several whispers of Oscar nominations already in the air. However, sports biographies don’t always deliver the biggest box office wins, and this September Sweeney’s hat-trick of flops could seal an unexpectedly poor year for one of Hollywood’s brightest stars.
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Americana
- Release Date
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August 15, 2025
- Runtime
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110 minutes
- Director
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Tony Tost
- Writers
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Tony Tost
- Producers
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Aaron L. Gilbert, Michael R. Williams, Terry Dougas, Ali Jazayeri, Jason Cloth, Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis, Steven Thibault, Alex Saks, David Gendron, Jean-Luc De Fanti, Suraj Maraboyina, Bavand Karim
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Eden
- Release Date
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August 22, 2025
- Runtime
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120 minutes
- Writers
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Noah Pink
- Producers
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Brian Grazer, Karen Lunder, Patrick Newall, Stuart Ford
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