Halsey urges support for Americana amid Sydney Sweeney ad storm

Pop star Halsey has defended Americana after the film struggled at the box office, blaming controversy around co-star Sydney Sweeney and her recent advertising campaign for overshadowing the movie.

The thriller Americana, which marks Halsey’s acting debut, opened to disappointing numbers despite months of anticipation.

Halsey, who appears alongside Sydney Sweeney in the film, criticised the media for targeting the project following backlash over Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans advertisement.

The campaign sparked debate after a play on the word “genes” led to accusations of promoting harmful ideas. Halsey argued that this unrelated controversy hurt Americana and impacted the work of the crew involved.

The singer urged fans to support the movie, describing Americana as a well-made thriller directed by Tony Tost.

Halsey said the negative attention unfairly overshadowed the efforts of those behind the film. She expressed frustration that the film’s reception was linked to the jeans campaign rather than its own merit.

Released in over 1,100 cinemas, Americana earned only $500,000 during its opening weekend despite its $9 million budget.

The movie, starring Sydney Sweeney, Halsey, and Paul Walter Hauser, tells the story of a small town descending into chaos when a stolen artifact enters the black market.

Halsey continued to highlight the quality of Americana and insisted the cast and crew should not suffer because of unrelated publicity.

While Sydney Sweeney has stayed silent on the matter, the controversy surrounding her advertising deal has sparked widespread online discussion.

Americana remains in theatres, and Halsey has encouraged audiences to judge the movie for themselves.

Also Read: Who is to blame for ‘Americana’ box office failure? Director breaks silence!

Earlier, debutante filmmaker Tony Tost, of Hollywood starlet Sydney Sweeney-starrer ‘Americana’, finally shared his thoughts on the film’s weak box office performance since its release last week.

The feature directorial debut of Tony Tost, ‘Americana’, finally arrived in theatres on August 15, more than two years after it first premiered at South by SouthWest Film & TV Festival, in March 2023.

While the title opened to generally positive reviews from critics, the crime thriller flick, co-starring Sydney Sweeney with Paul Walter Hauser and Halsey, emerged as a Box Office flop, with ticket sales of merely $500k, since its theatrical debut in more than 1100 cinemas.

Addressing the poor collections of the film, partly to be blamed on the off-screen controversies of the ‘Euphoria’ star, including the recent American Eagle ‘good jeans/genes’ storm, Tost wrote on X, “One of the great things about movies is that they outlive the zeitgeist into which they were released.”