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By Alex Kirschenbaum
Contributing Entertainment Writer
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After a year of box office stops and starts amid some controversial decision-making beyond the silver screen, Sydney Sweeney is doubling down on a safe cinematic bet.
Per Etan Vlessing of The Hollywood Reporter, the rising starlet intends to return as troubled housekeeper Millie Calloway for the sequel to her sleeper winter hit The Housemaid.
More news: Sydney Sweeney May Finally Have Her Moment with ‘Housemaid’ Performance
Read More on Entertainment
The flick, which also stars Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar as the wealthy Long Island couple harboring dark secrets who employ Millie, is already selling boatloads of tickets. Lionsgate's $35 million-budgeted thriller has grossed $137 million worldwide since first being unleashed in theaters on Dec. 19. Domestically, the erotic thriller has taken $79.7 million.
It's been capitalizing on three holiday-adjacent weekends with remarkable domestic box office durability. The film slipped just 19.5 percent in its second week and then 1.4 percent in its third. The Housemaid seems likely to easily shatter the $100 million mark stateside, and seems to have — for now — salvaged Sweeney’s burgeoning movie career.
Her bid for stardom had been on life support after three consecutive flicks — the dour South Dakota ensemble crime drama Americana, Ron Howard’s soapy Galapagos Island survivalist thriller Eden, and the formulaic-if-effective boxing biopic Christy — tanked in theaters earlier in the year.
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Sweeney, looking to break out from her days playing flippant Gen Z HBO ingenues, submitted strong, diverse performances across all those roles, even if the movies around her were occasionally uneven, if well-intended. But their failure was put on her.
The Housemaid flipped the narrative and has put her back in the driver’s seat of her film career.
Adapted from the first novel of (crucially) a hit Freida McFadden trilogy, The Housemaid has received mediocre reviews, but the soapy thriller has resonated as a clear hit with audiences.
Other Returning Faces for ‘The Housemaid’s Secret'
Director Paul Feig (The Heat, Bridesmaids), and co-star Michele Morrone are also slated to join Sweeney for The Housemaid’s Secret.
Sweeney and Seyfried are already locked in as executive producers on the sequel, as they did with the current movie. Sweeney does not yet have an official deal closed to return as Millie, Vlessing reports. Seyfried’s character Nina, Vlessing notes, did not appear in the original second novel. Could a cameo be forthcoming?
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