This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
The entire industry should be celebrating just how magnificently the box office has rebounded in the last couple of years. This summer delivered a wide slate of hits across genres, including some major surprises as well. Chief among them is the romantic film It Ends with Us, which debuted in the wake of Deadpool & Wolverine and swept its target audience off their feet with drama both on and off the screen. Starring Blake Lively, the film is approaching major box office milestones both domestically and worldwide.
With $146 million domestically and another $188 million from overseas markets, the film’s cumulative global haul stands at $335 million, signaling its success among not only the fans of Colleen Hoover’s source novel, but also among casual audiences. While the chances of it passing the $350 million mark domestically might seem slim, considering it’s on its way out of theaters, there’s a chance that it passes the $340 million mark before the end of its global run. And once you factor in the film’s relatively lean $25 million reported budget, its achievements seem all the more admirable.
It Ends with Us was supposed to be released earlier this year, but was delayed until after Deadpool & Wolverine. The move not only opened up the possibility of counter-programming, but also allowed Lively to promote the movie along with her husband, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds. She appeared in a brief cameo in the superhero blockbuster, which has generated over $1.3 billion worldwide, and said in an interview with E! News that Reynolds contributed to the writing of It Ends with Us. The movie has emerged as her biggest hit by far, having out-grossed 2011’s Green Lantern, which starred Reynolds in the titular role.
Lively and Reynolds’ Films Have Grossed Over $1.8 Billion Worldwide this Year
It Ends with Us has also out-performed fellow female-skewing literary adaptations such as The Girl on the Train ($173 million), Where the Crawdads Sing ($145 million), Crazy Rich Asians ($237 million), and The Fault in Our Stars ($307 million). However, the film won’t be able to match the performances of the Twilight movies, or even Fifty Shades of Grey ($570 million) and its two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker ($381 million) and Fifty Shades Freed ($371 million).
It Ends with Us debuted amid rumors of a feud between Lively and her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni. She was also criticized for downplaying the film’s central theme of domestic abuse in pre-release interviews, which she addressed later in a social media post. Despite that, It Ends with Us was embraced by audiences, and has earned the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes’ newly announced “verified hot” badge on the strength of its 91% audience score. You can watch the film in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
