2 Months Later, Sydney Sweeney's Edge-of-Your-Seat Thriller Drives a Stake Through 'Sinners' at the Box Office

1 week ago 9

Published Feb 18, 2026, 5:46 PM EST

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

In a turn of events befitting The Housemaid, the smash-hit twisty thriller, has overtaken Ryan Coogler's Sinners at the worldwide box office. It's an achievement that nobody would've seen coming leading up to The Housemaid's release in December, especially with the knowledge of how well Sinners had done, and how poorly Sydney Sweeney's movies had been performing throughout the previous year. As it turns out, when Sweeney does movies that audiences want to see, they do really well. She struck gold at the end of 2023 with the romantic comedy Anyone But You, which grossed over $230 million globally. But she followed it up with a string of releases of an entirely different flavor. None of them worked, and the odds seemed to have been stacked against her before The Housemaid's release. But the thriller delivered a strong opening, earned positive reviews, and held its ground at the box office for longer than expected.

Directed by Paul Feig, The Housemaid has now grossed $125 million domestically after spending two full months in theaters. At the worldwide box office, the film's total haul stands at a stunning $372 million, against a reported budget of $35 million. This puts it ahead of the $369 million that Coogler's critically acclaimed film ended its run with, against a budget of around $100 million. Sinners was released eight months prior to The Housemaid, and had already established itself as one of the year's best movies. It has since earned 16 Oscar nominations — an all-time record — and performed extremely well on PVOD and streaming charts. The Housemaid was recently released on home video as well, and has remained the number one movie on transactional platforms domestically for the last week.

Both 'Sinners' and 'The Housemaid' Were Embraced by Audiences

Also starring Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar, The Housemaid holds a "Certified Fresh" 74% critics' score and a "Verified Hot" 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator's consensus reads, "A sly throwback to the lurid thrillers that used to dominate multiplexes, The Housemaid cleans up nicely thanks to its wicked sense of fun and a delightfully unnerving performance from Amanda Seyfried." Sinners, on the other hand, starred Michael B. Jordan in dual roles, alongside Jack O'Connell, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, and breakout star Miles Caton. The movie seems to have settled at a 97% critics' score and a 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. You can watch both Sinners and The Housemaid at home. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.