After “Christy” failed at the box office, Sydney Sweeney said, “We Do not Always Make Art for the Numbers.” We Create It to Have an Impact.

After “Christy” failed at the box office, Sydney Sweeney said, “We Do not Always Make Art for the Numbers.” We Create It to Have an Impact.

Sydney Sweeney, who plays the groundbreaking boxer Christy Martin in the biographical drama “Christy,” is ignoring the film’s poor box office debut. The R-rated film was rejected with $1.3 million, qualifying as one of the lowest starts ever for a movie that was released in more than 2,000 North American theaters.

Sweeney wrote in the title of a long Instagram photo, “We do not always simply make art for numbers, we make it for effect.” “And Christy has had the most influence on my life.”

“Christy,” which was directed by David Michôd and starred Ben Foster, Merritt Weaver, and Katy O’Brian, follows Martin’s ascent to stardom in the ring and the attempted murder of her by her coach-turned-husband. Sweeney’s transformational performance was hailed by Variety’s top film critic Owen Gleiberman, who also called “Christy” a “sad depiction of abuse, enabling, gaslighting, and just how far domestic violence can go.”

“This movie is a symbol of hope, bravery, and survival. We have raised awareness for numerous victims of domestic abuse through our initiatives. We all agreed to this movie because we thought Christy’s tale would save lives,” Sweeney wrote on Instagram. “We are grateful to everyone who witnessed, felt, and believed in this story—and will continue to believe in it for years to come. We will have been successful if Christy gave one woman the confidence to take the first step toward safety.

Black Bear Pictures, which also produced the movie for $15 million, released “Christy” in theaters for the first time. In order to offset theater losses, the independent firm has sold the film’s rights in a number of foreign countries. Christy joins the shameful company of recent film festival favorites that did not do well at the box office, including Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson’s psychodrama “Die My Love,” “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” and “The Smashing Machine.”