I’m not thrilled that Lionsgate has already dropped The Housemaid onto PVOD, even if I’ll note that A) it got a now (kinda-sorta) standard 47-day window and B) it’s probably going to lose a bunch of screens and get steamrolled by Wuthering Heights the weekend after next anyway. This was recorded right as Lionsgate announced that the Sydney Sweeney/Amanda Seyfried/Brandon Sklenar-led flick had passed $300 million worldwide, partially on the strength of James Cameron-worthy holds in North America and especially overseas. Considering the decades of conventional wisdom arguing that Hollywood movies for women and/or minorities don’t travel overseas, well, it’ll top $200 million internationally over the next week.
It’s no secret that I came out of CinemaCon 2025 declaring that the sizzle reel for The Housemaid was the best promotional item I had seen in Las Vegas that week and that the erotic thriller/psychological melodrama was #2 on my 2025 must-see list after Avatar: Fire and Ash. However, even being cautiously hopeful as to its commercial potential, even I wasn’t so optimistic as to expect the $35 million, R-rated old-school genre flick to pull the kind of domestic ($121 million) and worldwide (around $316 million) grosses that would have been aspirational even a generation ago.
Anyway, to mark the special occasion, Paul Feig was nice enough to stop by to discuss how he made a crowdpleasing, buzzy adult-skewing genre flick. While we are as vague as possible, I would still argue that, yes, this conversation contains spoilers for The Housemaid. Meanwhile, the other areas of discourse include…
How the filmmaker uses the test screening process for good rather than evil.
How Fieig’s lifelong interest in comedy and thrillers intermingle.
Whether Hollywood will ever stop treating female-skewing successes as (my words, not his) exceptions to the rule and/or “flukes”.
What repeatedly stabbing Sandra Bullock in the leg taught him about playing laughs and gasps against each other for maximum audience reaction.
Why, after helming a few SVOD features, he’d prefer only to direct theatrical films.
How the reception for his old(er) movies like Ghostbusters and Last Christmas can change when they are (re)discovered years after the initial SEO-friendly discourse.
Is he actually directing Mamma Mia 3?
And more!
I hope it is as enjoyable to listen to as it was to record. In the meantime, the following Box Office Podcast episode will drop on Thursday morning, and I’m planning on another “paid subscriber chat” on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PST. As always, if you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe (using a cartoon mallet) with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you’d like to reach out and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or suggest ideas for bonus episodes, please email us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com.
Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News
Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap
Lisa Laman - Land of the Nerds, Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle
Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone
