Building a hit: how ‘The Housemaid’ cleaned up for Lionsgate UK

“You had Avatar, Marty Supreme – a lot of big juggernaut titles. I don’t think anyone saw The Housemaid working at that level. But it just held and held.”

Marie-Claire Benson, executive vice president and head of the motion picture group at Lionsgate UK, speaks glowingly of Paul Feig’s The Housemaid, which will become the distributor’s second-highest-grossing release ever in the UK & Ireland this weekend.

Released on December 26 last year to a £3.1m opening weekend, the film has now reached more than 10 times that at £31.1m – far surpassing an industry standard of total box office around four times the opening weekend.

The UK & Ireland is the film’s highest-grossing international territory, ahead of a strong £26.7m ($36m) showing in France, and contributing to a $367m worldwide total.

“When we originally put together our projections for the UK, we looked at similar elevated psychological thrillers, and we could see what those conversions were like: UK to US, with that potential opportunity,” says Benson. “We knew we could outperform, and our numbers could be big, but we didn’t realise to this level.”

The Housemaid is based on Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel about a struggling young woman offered a fresh start as a maid for a wealthy couple. The book was on The New York Times’ bestseller list for over a year. Lionsgate boarded the project from its US hub in October 2024 with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried leading the cast and started selling it at the AFM in 2024. A three-month shoot took place in early 2025. 

Benson says known names combined with literary material are a reliable draw on both sides of the Atlantic. “The filmmaking team on our side – Adam Fogelson, Erin Westerman, Chelsea Kujawa [Lionsgate US executives who oversaw the film] – made sure the elements in the book that really drew people in are what translated into the global success.

“All of those things combined, and we have the data to show that the UK just jumps on those titles.”

Underserved audience

With a December 19, 2025, release in the US, UK-Ireland followed one week later. Benson says the date was key to its early success, with the film acting as a balance not just to other films in the market, but to the holiday season itself. Women in particular enjoyed the chance to switch off from all things festive for a while, Benson suggests. 

“Releasing in the festive period worked really well for the UK. The film was counterprogramming to everything that’s going on in life at Christmas…A more female-led audience, for female-skewing films, is underserved,” says Benson.

For a literary adaptation set in a family home, but with Sweeney covered in blood in its trailer, ensuring the balance between drama and thriller was important. “It’s a drama-thriller,” says Benson. “Many people who read the book may have forgotten the intricacies. I remember reading the script ages ago and thinking ‘that’s great’. By the time I sat down to watch the film, I’d forgotten where it was headed.

“Paul [Feig] does that. The film opens with the gates [the grand gates to the house], and you think ‘I know what this is going to be, a beautiful drama story’. And then it goes off the rails in an excellent way.

“It’s not pedestrian viewing; it’s not straight drama. You can’t pigeon-hole it.”

Benson was keen to avoid the word ‘dramedy’ in positioning the film. “I would never say it, I don’t think it’s of any value,” says the exec. “We almost need to coin a new term – female-led psychological thriller, with sensational elements.

“It’s not comedic, it’s sensational. There are sensational moments that people have been talking about, that feed social media, with [social media] creators doing a lot of the work. It adds up to a great campaign.”

Once the UK-Ireland release was underway, the goal became to continue the extraordinary momentum. “I keep messaging Paul [Sophocli, senior theatrical sales manager at Lionsgate UK] saying ‘as you were’,” says Benson of maintaining the number of cinemas playing the film. “Exhibition really supported us, they acknowledged the success of it.”

It wasn’t just about getting people into the cinemas, but giving them a memorable time there. “It’s what’s going to get people through the doors, but also what’s going to get them talking,” says Benson. “It’s one thing to say ‘I went to the cinema… yeah, it was good’. You need to encourage people to say ‘it was good, because of these things’.”

Sequel

Feig and Sweeney are attached to a sequel, which Lionsgate International will start to sell at Cannes in May. Production dates are not confirmed but a 2026 shoot is anticipated. Benson reveals the film’s international distributors are contributing feedback based on what elements of the first film worked in their market. 

“The entire international community that released The Housemaid has been asked to feed into it,” said Benson. “What do we want to see more of? What worked in our territories? Whatever that secret sauce is. We don’t self-distribute everywhere. We want to ensure everyone in that conversation has the opportunity to feed in, which hopefully contributes to success on the next one.”

“I’ve already seen book-to-film adaptations of female-led psychological thrillers coming down the pipeline in the market,” said Benson of the film’s impact.

Despite the arrival of Wuthering Heights last weekend, The Housemaid maintained a spot in the UK-Ireland top five on its eighth session. It could yet get close to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’s £34.2m, Lionsgate UK’s highest UK-Ireland total. “It gets you through the 78 days of January,” laughs Benson. “It’s been a great start to the year.”

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