By Joshua Tyler
| Published 1 minute ago
As her popularity online has grown, the amount of crowing about Sydney Sweeney’s inability to deliver box office performance has also grown. Her detractors take delight in pointing out that most of her movies haven’t made any real money, and then use this to make it seem like her stardom is somehow fake or that her looks aren’t actually appealing to men.
This is the most delusional take anyone could have. It’s like saying Anna Nicole Smith wasn’t really famous, because she failed to star in The Matrix. Or like claiming no one really thought Charlize Theron was attractive, because they didn’t buy a ticket to see her turned into a hideous freak for Monster.
Sydney Sweeney’s Movies Ignore The Root Of Her Popularity
Sydney Sweeney’s online popularity is due to two very simple factors. First, she’s extremely attractive and willing to flaunt her physical assets for the enjoyment of viewers, without shame. Second, she’s not an out-of-touch activist who spouts statistically unpopular, politically biased opinions.
Her popularity could be easily translated into box-office dollars, but for some reason, Sweeney has not chosen to capitalize on it. Instead, she just made a movie based on a book, The Housemaid, known to be popular only with women, and co-starring someone who spent much of their press tour spouting political ideology.
Sydney Sweeney in Christy
Before The Housemaid, Sweeney made a flop called Christy, where she played a beat-up, unattractive, sweaty boxer. The poster makes her look repulsive, the movie’s trailers more so.
Sydney Sweeney is beloved for being unapologetically nice to look at. So it should be no surprise to her or anyone else that none of the people who like her would pay to see Sydney in a movie where she’s intentionally unappealing.
The Housemaid Is A Half-Step In The Right Direction
The Housemaid is the first Sweeney movie to do moderately well at the box office. It’s probably not a coincidence that it’s also the first recent Sweeney movie that leans into her attractiveness instead of leaning away from it.
The last movie she starred in, which optimized her looks, was the Netflix streaming exclusive rom-com Anyone But You. However, that was released more than a year before her popularity skyrocketed in the wake of those successful jeans ads.
The real test of Sydney Sweeney’s popularity will only come when she finally does something that fully leans into her online persona, instead of spitting in the face of it. That means making a movie that appeals to men, allows her to be attractive, and isn’t bogged down by unpopular political activism on the part of the film or her co-stars.
Barbarella Is The Real Test
The ideal test of Sydney Sweeney’s stardom is a movie like Barbarella. She’s long been attached to a remake of the space babe movie. If that gets done sometime in the next year or two, expect a box office performance that syncs up with the popularity of scantily clad Sydney Sweeney red carpet photos being shared around on the internet.
Until we get Barbarella, or something similar, nothing Sydney Sweeney does tells us anything other than that she’s not smart enough to capitalize on her popularity.