While Sydney Sweeney has been professionally acting for 15 years and gained recognition for her starring roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus Season 1 (both of which can be streamed with a Max subscription), the last 12 months have seen her profile significantly rise on the film front. It started with the successful release of Anyone But You, where she performed opposite Glen Powell. Unfortunately, the critically-maligned and commercial bomb Madame Web followed just a few months later, but reportedly the fourth movie in the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe franchise played a big role in making the romantic comedy happen.
As part of a report sharing how Sweeney will receive $7.5 million for starring with Amanda Seyfried in a thriller from Lionsgate called The Housemaid, more than $5 million than what she received for Anyone But You, THR mentions that the actress only agreed to do Madame Web in order to help get the rom-com off the ground. Sweeney performed as Julia Cornwall (better known in the comics as Julia Carpenter) first because, according to an unnamed source, she wanted Sony Pictures to know “she was a team player.” Madame Web only ended up making a little over $100 million off a reported budget of $80 million, but Sweeney walked away with a $750,000 paycheck.
Between that box office performance and critics slamming Madame Web every which way, it’s probably safe to assume that we won’t ever see Sydney Sweeney’s character teaming back up with Dakota Johnson’s Cassandra Webb, Isabela Merced’s Anya Corazón and Celeste O’Connor’s Mattie Franklin, despite what was teased at the end of the movie. Sweeney took Madame Web bombing pretty well, saying in March that as an actress hired to play a character, she was “just along for the ride for whatever was going to happen.”
But assuming the information in this report is accurate, then Madame Web was just a means to an end to get Anyone But You off the ground, and in the end, Sydney Sweeney, who also executive produced the rom-com, got what she wanted. Although Anyone But You was met with mixed critical reception, it made over $220 million worldwide off a reported $25 million budget, thus making it a sleeper hit. An extended version of the movie also played in theaters several days before Valentine’s Day.
Following Anyone But You and Madame Web, Sweeney has appeared in the horror movie Immaculate, her latest movie, Eden, premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, and she has Echo Valley and an untitled movie about boxer Christy Martin on the way. This $7.5 million for The Housemaid serves as further proof of how in demand Sweeney is after Anyone But You performed so remarkably, so at least we can say that some good came out of Madame Web since it played a role in the rom-com being greenlit.
Both Anyone But You and Madame Web can be streamed with a Netflix subscription. If you’d rather look ahead to the cinematic future, consult our 2024 movies schedule and 2025 movies schedule.