Will we ever know how it all ends?
“It Ends with Us,” a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling novel, has grossed $242 million worldwide in its first three weeks in theaters. Ticket sales are expected to reach at least $285 million to $300 million. In a summer dominated by movies for kids and teens, “It Ends with Us” is a rare movie event that appeals to female audiences.
The payoffs are huge, too. It Ends With Us cost $25 million to make and is expected to bring in at least $25 million to $30 million for distributor Sony and director and star Justin Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios (which co-financed with TSG Entertainment). Another source familiar with the deal puts that figure at double that. And that doesn't include theater grosses or box-office bonuses for stars Blake Lively and Baldoni.
The novel already has a sequel, “It Starts With Us,” so there's no need to over-leverage the source material to capitalize on the success of the film, as “Big Little Lies” did. And the existence of that sequel should make it clear that moviegoers haven't seen the last of Lily, Lyle, and Atlas, played by Lively, Baldoni, and Brandon Sklener, respectively, in the film. Hollywood insiders typically use strong box office headlines to rush to announce sequels. But the feud between Lively and Baldoni has caught the public's attention, putting sequel plans in jeopardy.
“This is uncharted territory and no one knows what a sequel will look like,” a source familiar with the matter said. “There's probably no world in which these two would work together again.”
As anyone who stays online at any given time knows, there was a ton of tabloid fodder about off-screen drama leading up to It Ends With Us' release. Rumors of animosity between Baldoni and the rest of the cast started when he wasn't pictured with them at the film's New York premiere on August 6th. Baldoni also didn't promote the film with Livly or Huber. Internet sleuths also discovered that none of Baldoni's co-stars, except Hasan Minhaj, who plays Baldoni's character's stepbrother, follow him on Instagram. Livly and Baldoni were reportedly at odds over the final cut of the film, with Livly's preferred version making it into the big screen.
Some screenwriters said it was odd that Livly admitted in a red carpet interview that her husband, Ryan Reynolds, wrote a key scene in the film's final cut. Sources said Baldoni had never heard of it before and thought the scene was improvised by Livly. The WGA did not respond to a request for comment on whether Reynolds' work could raise credit issues for union violations. While films can have uncredited writers, it is rare for a director to be unaware of them.
Reynolds' involvement creates a second problem for the WGA. Production on the film began on May 5, 2023, three days after the WGA strike began last summer. Reynolds, who has writing credits on Deadpool 2 and Deadpool vs. Wolverine, is a WGA member and was barred from contributing to the script from May 2 to September 27, 2023. Writers picketed the set in New Jersey, and production was halted in late June 2023, before the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14. (A source close to Reynolds said he passed on the film's rooftop scene in April 2023.)
Neither Baldoni nor Lively have publicly addressed the rumors, but multiple sources confirmed to Variety that there is a feud between the pair and that their relationship may not be salvageable, though none of the sources specifically said there was any legitimate wrongdoing on the part of either party.
The rift between the pair is further complicated by the fact that Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios owns the film rights to “It Ends With Us” and “It Starts With Us,” which it acquired from Huber in 2019. The author told Variety that he turned down several offers before agreeing to team up with Baldoni to adapt the book. “I felt that he understood the book and understood the importance of people needing to see it on the big screen,” Huber said.
So if Lively and Baldoni want to realize their completed vision of “It Starts With Us,” they may need to follow the example of their “Sex and the City 2” co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall and put their personal differences aside to get to business. Baldoni has hinted that he won't be directing the sequel, telling Entertainment Tonight at the film's premiere, “I think there are better people to direct. I think Blake Lively is ready to direct.” The character of Lyle has a much smaller role in the second film's story, making it easier for Baldoni to step aside, at least as an actor. Still, Baldoni and Lively will need to come to some kind of agreement, given their roles as producers.
Wayfarer and Baldoni own the rights to both novels, not just have the option, as is common with popular literary works; therefore, he does not have to renew the contract (which typically expires 18 months after signing), and is the only party who can decide its fate, according to a source familiar with the terms of the deal. The deal was struck after the novels sold a few copies and before Huber's ubiquity on BookTok, a subset of TikTok dedicated to reading, helped propel the author to literary stardom. “It Ends With Us” was published in 2016 but didn't become a phenomenon until a few years later. It went viral on TikTok in 2021 and became the bestselling print novel of 2022 and 2023.
Prior to the film's release, Baldoni told Variety about the sequel novel, saying he and Wayfarer “haven't started thinking that far ahead yet. We're trying to stay as focused on the present as possible.”But industry sources say it's hard to imagine that the creative minds behind Wayfarer, who have been behind titles like “The Garfield Movie” and the upcoming Will Ferrell documentary “Will & Harper,” wouldn't consider adapting a second installment of the hugely popular two-part book series.
Sony has automatic distribution rights for a theoretical sequel, but cannot force a sequel without Wayfarer's involvement. Because the second novel takes place a few months after the events of the first, producers would not want too much time to pass, risking that actors would be too old for the roles. Entertainment industry sources also point out that ideally there should be no more than two to three years between series to maintain audience interest.
“It Ends With Us” is already the highest-grossing film of the careers of directors Baldoni (beating the $92.5 million grossed by his directorial debut, “Five Feet Apart”) and Lively (beating the $237 million grossed by 2011's “Green Lantern”). But instead of basking in their box-office glory, they're engaged in damage control. Lively has been criticized for cheerfully promoting a film that deals with dark themes like domestic violence, and Baldoni has hired crisis management firm Tag PR. Of course, none of this has kept audiences from heading to the cinemas. “It Ends With Us” is on track to be one of the top 10 grossing films so far this year.
“It's one of the highlights of the summer,” said David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Audiences are waiting for the next chapter.”
