Sydney Sweeney is already talking about sequel potential for The Housemaid as the Lionsgate thriller hits theaters and posts a solid holiday start. Box office estimates put the film on track for roughly a $19 million domestic opening weekend, positioning it as a mid-budget play that could expand into a franchise if it holds through the Christmas corridor.
Sweeney stars as Millie, a live-in housemaid who takes a job with a wealthy couple and learns the home runs on secrets. Paul Feig directs, with Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone and Elizabeth Perkins in the cast. In premiere-week interviews, Sweeney framed Millie as “spicy” and “a fighter,” and said she wants to keep playing her if the studio moves ahead. “I would love to,” she said, adding that she has been “such a huge fan of the books.”
The source material gives filmmakers runway. Author Freida McFadden followed the 2022 novel with The Housemaid’s Secret (2023) and The Housemaid Is Watching (2024), plus a short story, The Housemaid’s Wedding. McFadden has said she would like to see the rest of the series adapted, while Feig has stressed that future movies hinge on how the first film performs commercially.
Feig has also signaled he will not treat the books as a strict blueprint. He changed key beats in the ending, keeping the central twist while steering the final stretch toward a more direct, violent confrontation that plays as catharsis for a theater crowd. McFadden praised the revision, calling the film’s finish even more thrilling than what she wrote.
Seyfried, who plays Nina, has described the role as a performance inside a performance: Nina acts unstable while pushing Millie toward a plan against her abusive husband. Seyfried said she and Feig leaned on improvisation at times to keep scenes unpredictable for Sweeney and to sharpen the film’s tension-to-humor rhythm.
