Sydney Sweeney’s weekend box office

Sydney Sweeney was all over New York last week, making the rounds at all the talk shows, getting papped in a variety of outfits outside the studios, and also, hilariously, canoodling in the park with Scooter Braun, LOL forever. Like somehow, even though all media outlets knew she was in the city, they thought they could sneak away to the pond and kiss on a rock. Sure, sure we’ll play along. How dare the paparazzi intrude on her private moments. 

Also, of course, there was the GQ cover story that went viral for what she did and notably didn’t say about the jeans controversy. 

All of this in service of her new film Christy, which world premiered at TIFF in September and kicked off her Oscar campaign. Going into opening weekend though, Sydney wasn’t cracking the top five on the predictions lists for a Best Actress nomination. A good box office could help with that. 

The box office, however, was not good. Christy flopped. And if Christy was a test of Sydney’s drawing power, she’s not quite yet at the level she was purported to be. Still, even though the movie underperformed, which certainly doesn’t help her Oscar nomination chances, I don’t know that it hurts to the point of no return. Like it or not, Sydney Sweeney is still getting all kinds of free publicity just by virtue of being, well, her. There are some Oscar campaigns who spend a lot of money hoping for attention and it makes no difference. That’s one way her team will be spinning this positively. 

Also, the best way to rebound from a sh-tty box office is to return to the box office. And Sydney has another project that’s due out soon. The Housemaid, co-starring Amanda Seyfried, will be released December 19 and it should perform much better than Christy so Sydney can change the narrative in a relatively short amount of time. 

Interestingly, though, with Amanda in the film too, if The Housemaid does well, it might actually be more of a benefit to Amanda and not Sydney. Right now, in the Best Actress Oscar race, the frontrunners for nominations are, in order, Jessie Buckley, Cynthia Erivo, and Renate Reinsve. There are several contenders in contention for the two remaining spots, and Amanda’s momentum has been steadily building over the last several weeks for her performance in The Testament of Ann Lee. If it’s between Amanda and Sydney, I feel like the Academy voters swing to Amanda, non?