{"id":362749,"date":"2026-01-10T12:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/362749\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T12:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:23:07","slug":"sydney-sweeneys-family-feud-appearance-helped-make-the-housemaid-a-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/362749\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Sweeney’s Family Feud Appearance Helped Make The Housemaid a Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere\u2019s a scene in \u201cThe Housemaid<\/a>\u201d in which Sydney Sweeney<\/a> and Brandon Sklenar watch an old episode of \u201cFamily Feud\u201d with host Richard Dawson. When they were filming the tension-filled sequence in early 2025, a lightbulb suddenly turned on in Sweeney\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSyd goes, \u2018We\u2019ve got to go on \u2018Family Feud.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018That\u2019s a hilarious idea,\u2019\u201d the film\u2019s director Paul Feig recalls. \u201cAnd I called Lionsgate and said, Syd wants to do \u2018Family Feud\u2019 and they\u2019re like, \u2018We\u2019ll make it happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate\u2019s publicity team did just that. Feig and the film\u2019s stars, including Amanda Seyfried<\/a>, competed on the Dec. 4 episode of ABC\u2019s \u201cCelebrity Family Feud.\u201d 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 \u2014 a throwback to the modestly budgeted breakouts of the \u201990s like \u201cThe Hand That Rocks the Cradle\u201d and \u201cBasic Instinct\u201d \u2014 to become a global phenomenon with female audiences when it opened on Dec. 19.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeading into its fourth weekend in theaters, \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d isn\u2019t slowing down domestically, where it is second only to \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d 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, \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d has already earned more than $140 million.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSydney understands her brand as well as anyone I\u2019ve ever met, and her willingness to go on \u2018Celebrity Family Feud\u2019 should not be treated lightly,\u201d says Lionsgate film group chair Adam Fogelson. \u201cYou could imagine somebody with that level of star power sort of saying, \u2018I\u2019m not sure I want to do that.\u2019 And Sydney not only did it, she did it with joy, as did Amanda, Brandon and Paul, all coming together to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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, \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d was marketed as an erotic thriller and has put up huge numbers ($18 million to date).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Housemaid\u201d marks the third movie greenlighted by Fogelson since he became chair of the motion picture group. The other two \u2014 \u201cThe Long Walk\u201d and \u201cNow You See Me\u201d \u2014 also found their groove with theatergoers. The teen-led thriller \u201cLong Walk\u201d has earned $63 million off of a $20 million budget, while the next-gen illusionists of \u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t\u201d have nabbed $220 million against the sequel\u2019s $90 million budget. The trio of movies helped reverse the cold streak that Lionsgate had been on throughout much of 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the biggest takeaway of the \u201cHousemaid\u201d success story is that female audiences remain underserved, something Feig has proven over and over thanks to such hits as \u201cBridesmaids\u201d and \u201cThe Simple Favor\u201d franchise. Based on a best-selling novel by Freida McFadden, \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d 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 \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d is an important win for the female audience, which has become increasingly apathetic about the $300 million tentpole du jour.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHollywood has a lot of excuses for why they don\u2019t want to do [a movie that services them] because they don\u2019t think women will show up and they\u2019re wrong,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Fogelson also has long known the potential of female audiences, having greenlighted the wildly profitable \u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d and Feig\u2019s \u201cBridesmaids\u201d at Universal.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s more opportunity with the female audience than Hollywood has been taking advantage of,\u201d Fogelson says. \u201cAnd whether it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNaturally, a \u201cHousemaid\u201d sequel<\/a> is in the works, even if deals for Feig and Sweeney\u2019s returns haven\u2019t yet closed. (All parties remain confident that they will get wrapped up.) The sequel also features four meaty roles \u2014 two male and two female \u2014 with the agencies aggressively pitching their best fits.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther studios may try to replicate the \u201cHousemaid\u201d playbook, and Amazon may now consider putting a potential third installment of Feig\u2019s \u201cSimple Favor\u201d franchise in theaters rather than continuing with a streaming-only release plan. (Though Amazon has never released the full numbers on \u201cAnother Simple Favor,\u201d it is believed that the sequel enjoyed more than 50 million views \u2014 a massive showing.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut 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\u2019t mean the playbook won\u2019t yield profits.<\/p>\n

\n\tSays Fogelson: \u201cPeople tend to write that small and mid-size films just can\u2019t work in Hollywood anymore. That is flat-out untrue. Because of our lower overhead and greater marketing efficiencies, we\u2019re able to run a business on these types of films, in addition to tentpoles like \u2018The Hunger Games,\u2019 the \u2018Twilights\u2019 and the \u2018John Wicks.\u2019\u00a0 It just creates a very different business opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a scene in \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d in which Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar watch an old episode of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[52178,6491,96,9298,54188,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-362749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-amanda-seyfried","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sydney-sweeney","12":"tag-the-housemaid","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}