Sydney Sweeney has gone from American Eagle flap to Americana flop. Weeks after the Euphoria actor’s AE jeans ads sparked controversy, her film Americana has bombed at the box office.
Americana opened to an estimated $500,000 from 1,123 theaters in its nationwide debut this weekend, ranking 16th in the domestic box office, per The Hollywood Reporter. By contrast, Sweeney’s 2023 rom-com, Anyone But You, opened to $6 million on its way to a domestic haul of more than $88 million, according to The Numbers.
As for Americana’s competition, Weapons continued ruling the box office with an estimated $25 million from 3,450 theaters in its second weekend, THR adds. Freakier Friday came in second place in its second weekend with an estimated $14.5 million from 3,975 theaters. And Nobody 2 came in third with $9.3 million from 3,260 theaters in its box office debut.
Written and directed by Tony Tost (Poker Face) in his film debut, Americana is a crime thriller in which outsiders and outcasts clash in a small South Dakota town after a rare Lakota ghost shirt hits the black market. Sweeney joins Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Zahn McClarnon, and Euphoria costar Eric Dane in the pic.
Americana has had a long journey to its theatrical debut. Sweeney and other costars joined the film’s cast more than three years ago, in February 2022; Americana premiered at the 2023 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival; and Lionsgate acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film in March 2024.
Despite the dismal box-office results, Lionsgate argues it has a multi-platform strategy for Americana, including a premium video-on-demand release, and that the $500k opening frame is “in no way a disappointment, financial or otherwise,” THR adds.
On the plus side, Americana has favorable reviews: It currently boasts a Metascore of 61 on Metacritic and a Tomatometer score of 68 on Rotten Tomatoes. “Told in five chapters and across multiple storylines, Tost’s first feature is an admirably weird and engaging odyssey that’s like Tarantino meets The Sugarland Express (with a healthy dose of Smokey and the Bandit),” Rolling Stone’s Marlow Stern said in one review. “It’s brimming with ideas and winning turns, in particular Sweeney and Hauser, whose romantic chemistry is terribly endearing, and McClarnon as the deadpan-hilarious face of anti-colonialist vengeance.”
Americana’s opening comes in the fallout of Sweeney’s ads for American Eagle, which plays on “jeans” and “genes” being homophones and says the actor’s “blue” genes/jeans are “great.” Critics dinged the ads as echoing Nazi eugenics and white supremacy; critics of the criticism cited the backlash as an example of “woke” politics.