Inside the Surprise Success of Sydney Sweeney Thriller ‘The Housemaid’: A ‘Family Feud’ Appearance That Went Viral and Servicing an Underserved Female Audience

There’s a scene in “The Housemaid” in which Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar watch an old episode of “Family Feud” with host Richard Dawson. When they were filming the tension-filled sequence in early 2025, a lightbulb suddenly turned on in Sweeney’s head.

“Syd goes, ‘We’ve got to go on ‘Family Feud.’ And I was like, ‘That’s a hilarious idea,’” the film’s director Paul Feig recalls. “And I called Lionsgate and said, Syd wants to do ‘Family Feud’ and they’re like, ‘We’ll make it happen.’”

Lionsgate’s publicity team did just that. Feig and the film’s stars, including Amanda Seyfried, competed on the Dec. 4 episode of ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud.” The episode went viral, driving 1.5 million video views within the linear window, according to Talkwalker Social Content Ratings, which tracks interactions for broadcast and cable entertainment series in primetime. And it set the stage for the thriller — a throwback to the modestly budgeted breakouts of the ’90s like “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and “Basic Instinct” — to become a global phenomenon with female audiences when it opened on Dec. 19.

Heading into its fourth weekend in theaters, “The Housemaid” isn’t slowing down domestically, where it is second only to “Avatar: Fire and Ash” in mid-week tallies as it continues to roll out in international territories like Germany (Jan. 15) and South Korea (Jan. 28). Last weekend, it enjoyed the best hold of any film in release, down just 1% from the previous weekend. With a budget of $35 million, “The Housemaid” has already earned more than $140 million.

“Sydney understands her brand as well as anyone I’ve ever met, and her willingness to go on ‘Celebrity Family Feud’ should not be treated lightly,” says Lionsgate film group chair Adam Fogelson. “You could imagine somebody with that level of star power sort of saying, ‘I’m not sure I want to do that.’ And Sydney not only did it, she did it with joy, as did Amanda, Brandon and Paul, all coming together to make it happen.”

The film is expected to top out between $225 million and $275 million worldwide, a bright spot in a challenged box office landscape. In an unlikely twist, the international haul may wind up bigger than domestic. In France, “The Housemaid” was marketed as an erotic thriller and has put up huge numbers ($18 million to date).

“The Housemaid” marks the third movie greenlighted by Fogelson since he became chair of the motion picture group. The other two — “The Long Walk” and “Now You See Me” — also found their groove with theatergoers. The teen-led thriller “Long Walk” has earned $63 million off of a $20 million budget, while the next-gen illusionists of “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” have nabbed $220 million against the sequel’s $90 million budget. The trio of movies helped reverse the cold streak that Lionsgate had been on throughout much of 2025.

Still, the biggest takeaway of the “Housemaid” success story is that female audiences remain underserved, something Feig has proven over and over thanks to such hits as “Bridesmaids” and “The Simple Favor” franchise. Based on a best-selling novel by Freida McFadden, “The Housemaid” already enjoyed a rabid fan base before Lionsgate tapped the ascendant Sweeney to star (she also executive produced the film.) For Feig, the success of “The Housemaid” is an important win for the female audience, which has become increasingly apathetic about the $300 million tentpole du jour.

“Hollywood has a lot of excuses for why they don’t want to do [a movie that services them] because they don’t think women will show up and they’re wrong,” he says.

And Fogelson also has long known the potential of female audiences, having greenlighted the wildly profitable “Fifty Shades of Grey” at Universal.

“There’s more opportunity with the female audience than Hollywood has been taking advantage of,” Fogelson says. “And whether it’s movies targeting the female audience more explicitly or books that are working for that audience that can be made into satisfying films, I certainly think this will only help amplify that.”

Naturally, a “Housemaid” sequel is in the works, even if deals for Feig and Sweeney’s returns haven’t yet closed. (All parties remain confident that they will get wrapped up.) The sequel also features four meaty roles — two male and two female — with the agencies aggressively pitching their best fits.

Other studios may try to replicate the “Housemaid” playbook, and Amazon may now consider putting a potential third installment of Feig’s “Simple Favor” franchise in theaters rather than continuing with a streaming-only release plan. (Though Amazon has never released the full numbers on “Another Simple Favor,” it is believed that the sequel enjoyed more than 50 million views — a massive showing.

But Lionsgate is uniquely poised in the wide release space because of its lower overhead than the legacy studios ($100 million a year vs. $800 million). The major studios largely have largely stopped trying to hit singles and doubles because their model is increasingly based on the all-or-nothing swing. But that doesn’t mean the playbook won’t yield profits.

Says Fogelson: “People tend to write that small and mid-size films just can’t work in Hollywood anymore. That is flat-out untrue.”