Christmastime is typically filled with presents at the box office, and 2025 had a sack full of them.
James Cameron’s big-budget juggernaut “Avatar: Fire & Ash” turned out to be another billion-dollar earner, while the A24 drama “Marty Supreme” found its audience thanks to Timothée Chalamet’s hip marketing gimmicks.
But while the cultural conversation was occupied by blockbuster blue people and a ping-pong phenom, one R-rated thriller was slowly gaining buzz.
What “The Housemaid” lacked in eye-popping visuals and critical cachet it made up for in star power and a racy storyline. Made for just $35 million — a budget nowhere near that of “Avatar” or “Marty Supreme” — “The Housemaid” is adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name and directed by Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids,” “A Simple Favor”). It stars Sydney Sweeney as the titular young housemaid with a troubled past, who’s hired by Nina (Amanda Seyfried), an eccentric housewife who, along with her husband (Brandon Sklenar), have some dark secrets of their own.
The first indication the movie was becoming an unlikely success story was its surprising international performance, earning over $100 million overseas by the first weekend in January. The movie hit its stride this past weekend, crossing the $100 million milestone domestically, giving the Lionsgate thriller a remarkable worldwide total of over $240 million. It’s now the biggest hit of Sweeney’s career and a bona fide sleeper hit.
For “The Housemaid” producer Todd Lieberman, the movie’s success was hardly a surprise. From producing past overperformers like the 2010 Oscar-winning boxing drama “The Fighter” to 2017’s hit coming-of-age tale “Wonder,” he has an eye for modest-budget material that will draw in audiences.
“Having a sleeper hit is fun because you know it’s not a sleeper, but everyone else thinks it is,” Lieberman told Business Insider.
Below, Lieberman explains how “The Housemaid” became the latest Hollywood success story.
Finding a book before it blows up and optioning it first was key
After spending 20 years alongside David Hoberman as the owners of Mandeville Films — whose highlights include the 2009 Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock rom-com “The Proposal” and Disney’s 2017 live-action “Beauty and the Beast” — Lieberman went out on his own, launching the production company Hidden Pictures in 2022. One of the first projects he went courting was adapting Frieda McFadden’s novel “The Housemaid.”
“I read the book, and I just fell in love with it,” Lieberman said, giving credit to his VP of development, Carly Elter, for passing him the novel. “I didn’t see the twist. I felt this is exactly what we’re looking for.”
After learning a major studio was also looking to acquire the book rights, Lieberman brought in Lionsgate, the company’s financial partner, for some extra muscle. Eventually, they were able to nab not just the rights to “The Housemaid” but the other two books in McFadden’s series, “The Housemaid’s Secret” and “The Housemaid Is Watching.”
Around the time that Hidden Pictures hired Rebecca Sonnenshine (“The Boys”) to write the script, “The Housemaid” began having a surge in book sales.
“It was taking a trajectory like what we had experienced with ‘Wonder,'” Lieberman said, referring to the movie he produced starring Jacob Tremblay as a boy with a facial disfigurement who navigates public school for the first time. The R.J. Palacio book of the same name went on to become a bestseller before the film’s release, ultimately boosting the adaptation’s popularity to the tune of over $300 million at the global box office on a $22 million budget. It’s since been translated into 29 languages.
“We could see the book was selling an incredible amount of copies,” Lieberman said of “The Housemaid.” It, too, would go on to become a New York Times bestseller.
But the movie still wasn’t greenlit at the studio. So Lieberman and his team put together what he called a “Brag Pack” for Lionsgate filled with data and accolades to up the project’s chances, showcasing how many books had been sold, the awards the books were up for, and the groundswell of fandom on social media “The Housemaid” was building.
“We were primed at that moment,” Lieberman said.
Timing was everything — especially when accommodating Sydney Sweeney’s schedule
By late fall 2024, Lionsgate interest in the project had increased, as Hidden Pictures had signed a director and gotten Sweeney involved to play Millie. But there were also some complexities to navigate.
“Sydney had a very limited window to shoot this movie because she had ‘Euphoria’ that was toggling between certain dates, so she was locked in for a certain amount of time. We had literally 32 days to get this movie done,” Lieberman said.
With a tight window and another project already in the works that had been greenlit, the director dropped out, which opened the door for Feig, who had been making it known around Hollywood that he wanted to do a thriller.
“We got on a Zoom with him, and he had read all the books; he knew it all inside and out,” Lieberman said. “But also, he brought a tone to this film that is slightly different than the tone of the book; Paul brought out a release valve of comedy that allows an audience to toggle between gasps and laughs. So he was the perfect director.”
By October, Feig and Seyfried had signed on, and that was enough for Lionsgate to greenlight “The Housemaid” for a brisk 32-day shoot in New Jersey in January 2025.
Facing off against “Avatar” proved to be the secret sauce to box office success
When Lionsgate called Lieberman shortly after production wrapped to tell him it was slating the movie for a Christmas Day release, he didn’t feel panicked. Yes, the movie would have to go up against the latest installment of the famously lucrative “Avatar” franchise at the box office — “Avatar: Fire and Ash” was slated for December 19 — but he saw that as an opportunity to shine.
After all, “The Housemaid” had strong test screenings. But there was one concern.
“This is not a family movie, so how are we going to compete where families are going to the theater?” Lieberman wondered.
Thankfully, Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson and head of domestic distribution Kevin Grayson made an adjustment, moving “The Housemaid” release date from Christmas Day to December 19. Though it would now have the same opening day as “Avatar: Fire & Ash,” it gave the movie some runway to gain traction before the holiday.
“That first week served as additional word of mouth and was basically marketing screenings for the movie,” Lieberman said. “So once Christmas was over and people had gone to the theaters with their families, our numbers really kicked into gear.”
Once January hit, “The Housemaid” was overperforming its industry projections, with box office only dropping around 20% over consecutive weekends.
What fans didn’t know was that Lieberman already had the pieces in place for a sequel.
“Everyone who works for me knows I don’t talk about sequels,” he said. “But I’m going to give credit to Paul [Feig] and his producing partner, Laura Fischer. While we were in post, they said, ‘Shouldn’t we be thinking about getting prepared for the second one?’ I went against my own superstitions, and I agreed we should be prepared. So we brought Rebecca back in, and she turned in a draft that was excellent, and the moment the movie hit a certain benchmark for Lionsgate, we had the sequel.”
“The Housemaid’s Secret” goes into production sometime this year.
After years of pulling off unlikely success stories, Lieberman said the most satisfying part of his job is proving that non-blockbuster stories can still pay off.
“These are the moments that give me a lot of hope for the moviegoing business,” he said. “That people will show up in droves if there’s something that feels fun.”
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