2024 is proving to be the year that Sydney Sweeney’s star goes stratospheric. Her newest feature film Immaculate, in which she plays an American nun at a convent in Italy, scored the biggest opening weekend ever for Neon. Her turn as a Saturday Night Live host a few weeks ago set the internet abuzz, with the show largely making jokes about and playing off of her attractiveness in skits. She’s also enough of an “it girl” to survive the disaster of appearing in Madame Webb, while her rom-com Anyone But You which was re-released on Valentine’s Day practically minted money at the box office this year.
The Sony blockbuster — starring Sweeney and Glen Powell as two characters who can’t stand each other but pretend to be in love to make their exes jealous — grossed more than $200 million off of a mere $25 million budget. And now, the biggest rom-com of the year starring the blonde bombshell everyone can’t stop talking about is now available on the biggest streamer.
Sorry to whatever else Netflix launches film-wise between now and the end of this week. Anyone But You is absolutely going to dominate the streamer’s film ranking when the new data comes out next week, and I suspect it won’t even be close.
In an interview with Variety at SXSW, Sweeney raved that the overwhelmingly positive reaction from viewers has been gratifying. “Seeing people shut off the outside world and feel all the emotions we wanted them to feel while we were making it, then leave the theater singing and dancing and wanting to fall in love — that is what the movie theatergoing experience is supposed to ignite inside you,” she said.
Anyone But You, we should add, also marks another instance of a wide chasm opening up between critics and viewers in terms of their response to a film. On Rotten Tomatoes, Anyone But You currently has a pretty terrible 55% critics score (based on 103 reviews) that stands alongside a strong 87% audience score derived from over 1,000 verified user ratings. “Cute movie,” one of those viewers opined. “Was a good rom com to watch with your SO. More com than rom. Very good movie.”
Sweeney, meanwhile, has been making headlines over the last 24 hours for a batch of Instagram photos that come off as a shot across the bow to her haters. Among the photos the two-time Emmy nominee for her roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus posted of herself, in one she’s wearing a sweatshirt bearing the phrase: “Sorry For Having Great Tits and Correct Opinions.” A response, presumably, to Hollywood producer Carol Baum, who recently disparaged the young actress by opining in public remarks that “I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. She’s not pretty. She can’t act.”
