EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate‘s feature take of Freida McFadden novel The Housemaid will now be released on December 19 instead of Christmas Day.
The studio is so over the moon about the Paul Feig-directed thriller starring Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar that the plan is to get the age 18-24 bunch who are off from college, who’ll then spread the word of mouth on the pic heading into Christmas.
The Housemaid will now open against 20th Century Studios’ James Cameron event title Avatar: Fire & Ash. Note, The Housemaid in its young, heavy-female skew is counterprogramming to that family event title. The Housemaid will also be sharing the marquee with wide entries in Paramount/Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Movie: The Search for Squarepants and Angel Studios’ Zero A.D.
Sweeney’s previous romantic comedy with Glenn Powell, Anyone But You, bowed on the Friday before Christmas in 2023 to $6 million and did an awesome 14.7x multiple stateside for an $88.3M take, $220.3M worldwide, becoming one of Sony’s most profitable titles that year.
In The Housemaid, Millie (Sweeney) is trying to escape her past and accepts a job as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Sklenar). But what begins as a dream job quickly unravels into something far more dangerous — a sexy, seductive game of secrets, scandal and power. Behind the Winchesters’ closed doors lies a world of shocking twists that will leave you guessing until the very end.
Pic also stars Michele Morrone and Elizabeth Perkins. Rebecca Sonnenshine wrote the screenplay off McFadden’s novel. Producers are Todd Lieberman, Feig and Laura Fischer.